ANTHRO 128B Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Samuel George Morton, Mustard Seed, Brain Size
What is the danger of a single story?
How did science provide biological justification for racial ranking?
What did representations of female skeletons have to do with the place of women in society?
In 18th/19th century, leaders and intellectuals viewed racial ranking as obvious
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Vast majority believed that Indians were below whites, blacks below everybody else
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Idea of black and Indian inferiority were accepted long before scientists started researching about race
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Shows intellectuals saying that all men are equal yet still treat other races differently
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Thomas Jefferson: thought that blacks were inferior to whites in both body and mind
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Social/cultural fact before it became viewed as scientific fact
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Where did the single story of race as scientific fact start?
Blacks (ruled by caprice -impulsiveness and customs)
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Whites (ruled by customs)
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Linnaeus mixed character with anatomy
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Cultural Superiority
Scientific argument for biological basis of race has played major role in racial prejudice
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Biological justification for racial prejudice imposed the additional burden of intrinsic inferiority upon certain groups
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Racial Prejudice and Science
'proper' education and standard of life could 'raise' blacks to white level
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Differences between whites and blacks were far too many and immutable --> segregation
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There can be nothing done to 'raise' blacks to white level
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'Solutions' to Black Inferiority
The doctrine that human races constitute a single biological species with common origin and physical differences produced
by natural agents over time
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Races have declined to different degrees; whites were least and blacks were most
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Human races are a product of degeneration
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Monogenesis
Blacks need not participate in the equality of man
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The doctrine that human races constitute separate species, with separate origins and physical differences that are
unalterable and racially innate
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Converted to doctrine of human races as separate species
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Promoted idea that education must be tailored to innate ability; blacks to hand work and whites to education
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Equal but separate; 'legal equality, but no social equality' due to fear of degeneration
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Anti-miscegenation: danger of a mixed and 'enfeebled' people
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Advocacy for social policy as dispassionate inquiry into scientific fact
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Louis Aggassiz: leading spokesperson for polygenesis
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Firmly believed human races were separate species
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Filled skulls with mustard seed and measured skull's volume; inconsistent results with the seeds so he
switched with lead shots
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Whites = largest cranial capacity
Indians = smaller cranial capacity
Blacks = smallest cranial capacity
Suggested that there is a direct relationship between brain size and intelligence
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Gould found that the more inferior race, the greater discrepancy between subjective measurement
(mustard seed) and objective measurement (lead shot)
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Also recognized numerical errors favored his prejudices
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Ranking races could be established objectively by physical characteristics of the brain --> measured skulls
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Samuel George Morton: provided facts that earned respect for American school of polygeny
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Did not constitute attack upon scriptural doctrine on human unity; tale of Adam and Eve refers only to origin of Caucasians
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Polygenesis
1/4 of entire sample of skulls were from small-brained Inca-Peruvians
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Morton's sample is strongly biased by major overrepresentation of an extreme group
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When errors were corrected, Gould found no significant difference in average cranial capacity between the two races
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Also noticed that Morton excluded small-brained skulls from Caucasian group
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Subjective division; bigger skulls to Caucasians and smaller skulls to blacks
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Averages were not that far apart for these two races also
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Morton identified races and groups based on features of the skull; did not know for sure which skulls came from which race
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Morton assumed he measure innate intelligence differences
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Gould's Reassessment of Morton's Raw Data
Morton's conventional rankings reveal no significant differences among races
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Gould's Findings
1/22/18
Monday, January 22, 2018
10:58 AM
January 22 Page 1
Document Summary
In 18th/19th century, leaders and intellectuals viewed racial ranking as obvious. Vast majority believed that indians were below whites, blacks below everybody else. Idea of black and indian inferiority were accepted long before scientists started researching about race. Social/cultural fact before it became viewed as scientific fact. Thomas jefferson: thought that blacks were inferior to whites in both body and mind. Shows intellectuals saying that all men are equal yet still treat other races differently. Scientific argument for biological basis of race has played major role in racial prejudice. Biological justification for racial prejudice imposed the additional burden of intrinsic inferiority upon certain groups. "proper" education and standard of life could "raise" blacks to white level. There can be nothing done to "raise" blacks to white level. Differences between whites and blacks were far too many and immutable --> segregation.
