Existing comment:
1839: Race and skull size:
Philadelphia physician Samuel Morton ranks intelligence by measuring the capacities of skulls he has collected. Filling them with mustard seed and lead shot, he categorizes them as follows: "Caucasian" skulls have the great capacity, followed by "Mongolians," "Malaysians," "Americans," and "Ethiopians." Some Europeans refer to this theory as the "American School" of human biology. A 1981 reexamination of Morton's work shows he skewed the results by excluding skulls that didn't fit his expectations. Today's science indicates there is no link between skull size and intelligence.
"We of the South should consider [Morton] as our benefactor, for aiding most materially in giving to the negro his true position as an inferior race."
-- RW Gibbs, Samuel Morton obituary, Charleston Medical Journal (1851)
1842: Race and skull shape:
Swedish anatomist Anders Retzius introduces the cephalic index, in which a skull's width is divided by its length in order to determine whether it is relatively round, wide or long. The cephalic index is quickly adopted by many scientists, who believe it is a fixed trait that can be used to assess intelligence and race.
1854: Different races, different origins:
Types of Mankind, a widely read book by Josiah Nott and George Gliddon, promotes "polygenism," the idea that human races are distinct species that were created separately. Nott and Gliddon present their claims as based on up-to-date science. The esteemed Harvard zoologist Louis Agassiz also contributes to the book, which introduces "scientific" justifications for notions about racial inferiority and slavery to a broader public.
"[T]he differences existing between the races of men are of the same kind as the differences observed between the different families, genera, and species of monkeys or other animals; and ... the differences between distinct races are often greater than those distinguishing species of animals one from the other."
-- Louis Agassiz, introduction to Types of Mankind (1854) |