“I Was Stealing Some Skulls from the Bone Chamber When a Bigamist Cleric Stopped Me.” Karl Ernst Von Baer and the Development of Physical Anthropology in Europe (2018)
Tammiksaar, Erki (Author)
Kalling, Ken (Author)
Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Volume: 60
Issue: 4
Pages: 276-293
What was probably the first collection of human skulls for purposes of study was established by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach in Göttingen at the end of the 18th century. In subsequent years, the number of such collections increased, but their importance for scientific research remained modest. A breakthrough took place only in the 1850s when studies on the so-called cranial index by Karl Ernst von Baer and Anders Retzius gave skull collections a new lease on life, raising physical anthropology from a solely descriptive science to an empirically based “biological anthropology” which used quantitative methods. As a result, Baer was among the first to distinguish between linguistic and morphologic criteria when systematising human populations. This article discusses the development of Baer's ideas concerning the aims and methods of physical anthropology during his career. It pays special attention to the role of scientific collections in moulding Baer's theories.
...MoreArticle Marianne Klemun; Marina Loskutova; Anastasia Fedotova (2018) Skulls and Blossoms: Collecting and the Meaning of Scientific Objects as Resources from the 18th to the 20th Century. Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology (pp. 231-237).
Similar Citations
Chapter
Fabbri Bertoletti, Stefano;
(1994)
The anthropological theory of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach
Article
Junker, Thomas;
(1998)
Blumenbach's racial geometry
Article
Nathaniel Knight;
(2017)
Geography, Race and the Malleability of Man: Karl von Baer and the Problem of Academic Particularism in the Russian Human Sciences
Article
Eva Åhrén;
(2017)
Figuring Things Out: Visualizations in the Work of Swedish Anatomists Anders and Gustaf Retzius, 1829–1921
Book
Piroska Balogh;
Dezső Gurka;
(2019)
Changes in the Image of Man from the Enlightenment to the Age of Romanticism: Philosophical and Scientific Receptions of (physical) Anthropology in the 18-19th Centuries
Article
Francesca Monza;
Silvia Iorio;
(2018)
Bodies for science. The display of human statues for educational purposes
Article
Lucia Borrelli;
Mariailaria Verderame;
(2021)
Malformed skulls from criminal Anthropology: a preliminary study on the Cranioteca of the Anthropology Museum of Naples
Article
Diamandopoulos, A.;
Goudas, P.;
(2005)
“You Can't Make a Monkey out of Us”: Galen and Genetics Versus Darwin
Article
Ulrich Kattmann;
(2023)
Vorurteil vs. Wissenschaft: Thomas Henry Huxley und Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (Prejudice vs. science: Thomas Henry Huxley and Johann Friedrich Blumenbach)
Thesis
Ryan William Feigenbaum;
(2017)
The Epistemic Foundations of German Biology, 1790-1802
Chapter
Stefano Spataro;
(2018)
Il corpo umano come luogo ‘ordinario’ dei vermi intestinali: storia e fortuna delle teorie parassitologiche di Antonio Vallisneri
Book
Grootenboer, Hanneke;
(2012)
Treasuring the Gaze: Intimate Vision in Late Eighteenth-Century Eye Miniatures
Article
Brauckmann, Sabine;
(2011)
Axes, Planes and Tubes, or the Geometry of Embryogenesis
Book
Agustín Fuentes;
Aku Visala;
(2017)
Verbs, Bones, and Brains: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Human Nature
Article
Fausto-Sterling, Anne;
(2008)
The Bare Bones of Race
Article
Roque, Ricardo;
(2011)
Stories, Skulls, and Colonial Collections
Article
Marta Marchetti;
(2019)
The Journey of the Mute Frankenstein of Thomas Potter Cooke: Towards a Language for a New Science
Book
Chiara Beneduce;
Denise Vincenti;
(2018)
Oeconomia Corporis: The Body’s Normal and Pathological Constitution at the Intersection of Philosophy and Medicine
Article
Daniela Helbig;
Dalia Nassar;
(2016)
The Metaphor of Epigenesis: Kant, Blumenbach and Herder
Chapter
Legée, Georgette;
(1990)
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752-1840): La naissance de l'anthropologie à l'époque de la Révolution Française
Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Configurations: A Journal of Literature, Science, and Technology
Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Medicina nei Secoli - Arte e Scienza
Naturwissenschaftliche Rundschau
Be the first to comment!