Article ID: CBB559656397

Unconventional Views of Racial Brains in the 19th Century (2019)

unapi

In this article two protagonists of nineteenth-century anthropological culture, Samuel George Morton and Paul Broca, are presented as the embodiment of mainstream stances on the relationship between brain and race. More or less close to their successful raciological tenets, a host of other names might be recalled. However, the main purpose here is to point out some ‘deviant’ opinions that challenged the scientific common sense of an epoch, starting with the nigrophilie expressed by the abbé Grégoire early in the century, to then discuss the cautious ‘egalitarianism’ professed by James Cowles Prichard and William Hamilton or the more explicit view sustained, over time, by Friedrich Tiedemann and Luigi Calori. Their focus was the influence of the brain – its shape, volume, and weight – on intellectual and moral manifestations: a tormented issue that for decades was addressed in different ways and with outcomes that always proved inconclusive.

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Authors & Contributors
Brian Hochman
Morning, Ann
Livio Sansone
Banta, Joshua Alexander
Blanckaert, Claude
Stein, Melissa Norelle
Concepts
Science and race
Anthropology
Brain
Race
Science and society
Physical anthropology
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
20th century
18th century
21st century
Places
France
United States
Tasmania (Australia)
South America
Portugal
Belgium
Institutions
Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris
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