Existing comment:
1854: An early critic of "race science"
Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave, abolitionist and renowned intellectual, publishes "The Claims of the Negro, Ethnologically Considered," a critical review of the "race science" conducted by Nott, Gliddon, Morton, Agassiz and others. In this work, Douglass articulates the "nurture" argument at the origin of an American "nature vs. nurture" debate.
"I think it will ever be found, that the well or ill condition of any part of mankind, will leave its mark on the physical as well as on the intellectual part of man. A hundred instances might be cited, of whole families who have degenerated, and others who have improved in personal appearance, but a change of circumstances. A man is worked upon by what he works on. He may carve out his circumstances, but his circumstances will carve him out as well."
-- Frederick Douglass, "The Claims of the Negro, Ethnologically Considered" (1854)
1877: Race, culture, and progress:
American lawyer and anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan proposes the theory that cultures develop through three progressive stages, which he labels "Savagery," "Barbarism," and "Civilization." In his view, European cultures represent the standard for Civilization, with other countries occupying the lower rungs of development.
"Thus, while Africa was and is an ethical chaos of savagery and barbarism, Australia and Polynesia were in savagery, pure and simple, with the arts and institutions belonging to that condition. In the like manner, the Indian family of America ... illustrated each of these conditions, and especially those of the Lower and of the Middle Status of barbarism, more elaborately and completely than any other portion of mankind."
-- Lewis Henry Morgan, "Ancient Society" (1877)
1879: Anthropology takes on the "Indian problem":
As it expands its systems of Indian reservations, the US government seeks to gain a better understanding of the tribes under its control. In 1879, it establishes the Bureau of Ethnology to document and study American Indian history, customs and language. As part of their research, anthropologists working for the bureau collect thousands of photographs of Indians.
1885: The Equality of Human Races:
In his book "The Equality of Human Races," the Haitian politician and intellectual Antenor Firmin criticizes European and American scientists for allowing ideas about the inequality of races to shape their work. Firmin carefully refutes their theories and proposes alternate ones about the development of human variation.
"The notion of a hierarchy of the human races, one of the doctrinal inventions of modern times... will be seen some day as one of the greatest proofs of the imperfection of the human mind and of the imperfection... of the arrogant race that made it into a scientific doctrine."
-- Antenor Firmin, "The Equality of Human Races" (1885) |