Article ID: CBB001422412

Arctic Observers: Richard King, Monogenism and the Historicisation of Inuit through Travel Narratives (2015)

unapi

Sera-Shriar, Efram (Author)


Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Volume: 51
Pages: 23-31


Publication Date: 2015
Edition Details: Article in a special section: “Historicising Humans in Nineteenth-Century British Sciences”
Language: English

In 1848 the ethnologist, surgeon and Arctic explorer Richard King (1810--1876) published a three-part series on Inuit in the Journal of the Ethnological Society of London. This series provided a detailed history of Inuit from the eleventh century to the early nineteenth century. It incorporated a mixture of King's personal observations from his experience travelling to the Arctic as a member of George Back's expedition (1833--1835), and the testimonies of other contemporary and historical actors who had written on the subject. The aim was to historicise Inuit through the use of travel reports and show persistent features among the race. King was a monogenist and his sensitive recasting of Inuit was influenced by his participation in a research community actively engaged in humanitarian and abolitionist causes. The physician and ethnologist Thomas Hodgkin (1798--1866) argued that King's research on Inuit was one of the best ethnological approaches to emulate and that it set the standard for the nascent discipline. If we are to take seriously Hodgkin's claim, we should look at how King constructed his depiction of Inuit. There is much to be gained by investigating the practices of nineteenth-century ethnologists because it strengthens our knowledge of the discipline's past and shows how modern understandings of races were formed.

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Article Sera-Shriar, Efram (2015) Human History and Deep Time in Nineteenth-Century British Sciences: An Introduction. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (pp. 19-22). unapi

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001422412/

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Authors & Contributors
Ken J. Caine
Bockstoce, John R.
Bathsheba Demuth
Irving-Stonebraker, Sarah
Brenda Parlee
Smithers, Gregory D.
Concepts
Indigenous peoples; indigeneity
Science and race
Travel; exploration
Inuit Indians
Cross-cultural interaction; cultural influence
Native American civilization and culture
Time Periods
19th century
21st century
20th century
20th century, early
Early modern
20th century, late
Places
Arctic regions
Russia
Canada
United States
Norway
North America
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