ANTH 150A1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Scientific Racism
30 Aug 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Provided the first clear explanation of agency of natural selection in adaptation & of common ancestry in evolution. Variation = key element in darwin"s thinking. Natural selection was concerned with variation but also with variation that defined the survival & reproductive potential of individuals in the struggle for existence. During the mid 19th century it was hard not to get involved or influenced by the issue of slavery which hinged on the concept of race. Science was beginning to establish its authority in explaining nature in general. European & american anthropologists were focused on describing & categorizing human racial variation & on understanding the significance. By the mid 19th century the humanness of the negro had not been established by western science. Lincoln addressed this issue in the kansas-nebraska act of 1854: Equal justice to the south the difference between hogs & negroes. Taney declared that slaves did not differ from other forms of property.
