SOCA01H3 : Ethnicity Msl nts
Document Summary
N most distinguished scientist dr. samuel george merton believed that the bigger the brain, the smarter the individual. N measured the volume of various skulls,(by pouring shot into the skull till full, and then pouring that into a graduated cylinder) and then grouped the skulls by race. N found that relative sizes of brains was related to social hierarchy. N whites, asians, native americans, blacks in descending order. N seemed to show that social inequality in the world actually had biological roots. Today, we know three main issues compromise his findings: claimed he could identify race by the shape of the skull. Even scientists of today cannot do this, and he is very likely to have been identifying them wrongly: only studied a small random sample of 72 skulls that he just happened to have access too. Since females are naturally smaller than males he should have ensured that the sex composition of the black and white skulls was equal.
