Race Science, Eighteenth to Mid-Nineteenth Centuries

The topic of origin or race has been discussed by several people who seek to define why there are different races in the world. There are those who have tried to apply scientific way a while others attribute the differences to the environment. Some of the people who have tried to explain the concepts are Samuel Stanhope, Fran?§ois Bernier, and George Cuvier. There are divisions on the issue of race because it is a complex issue. The race is a word that is used to indicate a specific ethnic group. Most of the explanations that explain the origin of different races were developed from sixteenth century to mid-nineteenth century. Categorizing human types and defining races in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was part of the larger Enlightenment and scientific project of the time, related to developments in taxonomy and biology. But observers of the race made unscientific logical leaps from their data to their conclusions or used unscientific bases for comparison. The science or race thus reflects the power relationship between the scientists and those they observed more than it informs us about actual differences between groups of people.

Scientific Ideas of Race in 18th Century

One of the scientific ideas developed to explain the origin of race is monogenesis. It refers to the influence environment has towards the development of races. The concept of monogenesis states that race development if based on environmental factors and not inheritance. The concept is called environmentalism. One of the scholars who support attribute the development of different races to environmental factors is Samuel Stanhope Smith. Smith used his wide knowledge and interest to develop the principle. He argued that when people from different races were brought together and lived in a specific region; their generations developed a characteristic that would be associated with the region they lived. As a result, they would look alike over time. The idea came to be when the slave trade was popular, and scientist wondered why there were big differences between people from different regions. The scientist had an answer which stated that the differences were as a result of the differences in environmental condition in different regions around the world. Some of the environmental factors were both natural while others were social. To support the argument, some Senegalese from Africa and Danes from Europe were exchanged. After several generations, Senegalese were changing and becoming white while the Danes were also changing and becoming black. The early scientist made attempts to categorize the races that existed in the sixteenth to mid-nineteenth century. Several people made efforts. Francois Bernier developed four categories of races which he based on color. The four groups are Asiatic, European, Lapp, and African. These are probably the first groupings which were done in the sixteenth century. He also considered lips size and body appearance of the groups, and he was able to interpret it using his knowledge before coming up with the four groups. In the 1730s, Carolus Linnaeus made an effort some improvement to Bernier's classification. He came up with four groups which had more advance names. The names were African (niger), American (rubescus), Asiatic (fuscus) and European (albums). He also developed taxonomic names which were almost similar to the original names and they were Asiaticus, Europeanus, Americanus, and Africanus. Linnaeus used skin color, and origin, but he later included physical characteristics and his understanding of emotional and social characteristics. In the mid-1700s, there was another discovery where Comte de Buffon came up with the idea that animas should be classified depending on their ability to interbreed. He argued that it would be easier to know whether animals are the same species by interbreeding them. If the process is successful, the conclusion was they are the same species. In 17770's, another type of classification was established by John Friedrich Blumenbach. He abandoned the classification of human species using geographical regions which had four groups. His new five group classification was based on morphology (physical characteristics). He established five categories which include American (referring to red race), Ethiopian (the black race), Caucasian (referring to white race), Malayan (also called brown race) referring to and Mongolian (referred to as yellow race). In 1817, there was extinction of some races which were under the five category classification and George Curvier attributed it to catastrophic events such as Darwinian trickle which was happening around that time.

Background extinction was also caused extinction.

I. Polygenesis: Starting 1700s, some writers began to suggest polygenesis explained differences: Voltaire; David Hume; Christoph Meiners: Georg Foster: Jean-Joseph Virey; John Pinkerton: Edward Long. Also a. Lord Kames, Sketches of the History of Man (1774), advocated polygenesis. The author abandoned Christian beliefs, and he concluded that humans had different races which were as a result of the variation in species characteristics. He also said that the variations made the human have different and unique species. Lord Kames also noted that human history had common characteristics which were a consistent improvement of primitive to civilization These arguments were a defense to the attack on polygenesis b. Charles White, 1799, Account of the Regular Gradation of Man. Charles White wrote this book trying to explain his finding on the differences among skulls from the different human species that were in existence them. He said he had found differences in all the skulls. He compared the skull of humans with that of a donkey and concluded the two were different species. c. Bernard Romans, of A Concise Natural History of East and West Florida, 1775. The book states that the population in Florida increased ten times around 1900. The author says that the increase in population is because this was one of the first areas that humans settled. Taking together increased the intelligence of the community. Americans inhabitant got to realize the importance of Florida and was interested in learning the history of Florida because of the high increase population. Bernard Romans's shows that early humans did the trade. The book has a history of the relationship among people from India, Britain, and USA. The book provides information on the transformation of the species and the development of scientific technology. It also provides scientific arguments about the development of humankind. Monogenesis remained the dominant mode of thought in the 18th century. This is an explanation of human origin. Monogenesis provides an explanation that shows that all human beings have a common origin for all races (created together). Monogenesis was discussed a lot during the nineteenth century when the scientific racism discussion was rife and different individuals were trying to scrutinize it with the aim of establishing the truth or supporting their belief. Religious people and scholars discussed the idea of race in the nineteenth century. The differences were explained through different theories developed by various writers. Some of the influential writers include: Charles Darwin Charles Darwin is one of the influential writers who contributed to the discussion on races. He developed a theory which covered the origin of species and more specifically human being. He covered how sex determined the king of offspring that would be produced. Darwin maintained his idea that all races were created separately.

Louis Agassiz

He believed that all races were created separately. He was also an influential writer during the period when racial science was very popular. He said that there were unequal attributes concerning the endowment of the race. Growth of anthropometry The skull is one of the main features that were used to prove the differences among races. Anthropometry is a field that finds differences among human beings by measuring their sizes and make identification using physical variations easy. Then the identities derived are associated with a certain race. Anthropometry measures shape and size of human bodies using the dimensions. Phrenology: Phrenology was very influential in back in the nineteenth century. It was concerned with the measurement of the size and shape of the human skull for identification. The reason behind it was that the brain has localized modules. This field of identification borrowed more from science. Craniology Craniology was considered very scientifically respectable in the 1840s. Several writers have written several works trying to explain the principle. Pieter Camper Pieter Camper in the late 1700s supported the use offacial angle in racial science. It was important because it was a way of measuring intelligence among different individuals who were seen as representatives of a specific race. He believed that a person's intelligence could be measured by drawing two lines one perpendicular and another one horizontally. William F. Edwards William Edwards was able to discover that shape and face had some way of showing the race of person came from because the distance between the camera a person's face varies. As a result, there is a variation of appearance which is significant and can be relied upon to identify some unfamiliar faces. Adjusting the distances between face and camera creates a subspace from the face. Anders Retzius Anders Retzius, the 1840s, showed the ratio of length and breadth of the cranium. He was a knowledgeable scientist who helped develop the cephalic index which can be obtained by calculating heads ration regarding width to length. He believed all races were created differently (polygenism). Samuel George Morton in the US, Crania Americana (1839) Morton was a supporter of polygenism. Morton is one of those scientists who strongly believed that there was no way all races had a common creation. Due to his expansive knowledge of science, he was able to use establish intellectual capabilities of individuals. 1840 census data, John C. Calhoun, and the marriage of science and politics Science combined with politics in 1840 census when John Calhoun (the vice president) and Jackson disagreed. John had two wives, and the wives of the cabinet ministers excluded her. But Van Buren refused to join them in ostracizing the Peggy Eaton. As a result, many people resigned from their cabinet positions. The president recognized Van Buren, and he was chosen to become a vice president and later on was chosen as the person to replace the president. But due to his association with Eaton's second wife, he lost the second re-election held in 1840. The Mulatto Mullato is a community that many people thought it was going to end after it lasted for four over five generations. The communities were believed to be a weak community, and some scientist hoped that it was necessary for them to intermarry for them to get a boost of genes which would enable them to acquire characteristics that would enable them to live longer. Mullato had originated from two different species. The white community would not eradicate Mullato's infertility.

Bibliography

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