![]() 7 Blumenbach published woodcut images and descriptions of some of his personal collection of hundreds of skulls from across the world sent to him by travelers and students. These five groups corresponded to what Blumenbach called the major “varieties” of humans, which could be divided based on skull form. ![]() II): Mongolian, American, Caucasian, Malay, Aethiopian (left to right).īeginning in 1775, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752-1840) suggested that the four races in the taxonomy of Linnaeus (including, African, American, Asian, and European) could be expanded to five, with somewhat different terminology: Europeans as Caucasians, Africans as Aethiopians, Asians as Mongolians, as well as Americans and Malays (who were Polynesians and other South Pacific Peoples). Blumenbach’s five races, from his De generis humani varietate nativa (Tab. 6 The use of craniological methods to differentiate human races from one another, and to differentiate humans from animals, would remain the primary aims of craniology. For Camper, the higher European forehead and less pronounced jaw were closest to the (anatomically impossible) Greco-Roman ideal of beauty, while the African was furthest from this ideal and closest to the ape. A larger angle indicates a more vertical forehead and less projecting jaw, while a smaller angle indicates a more sloping forehead and more projecting jaw. 5 This angle is formed between a line coming from the forehead to the most projecting point of the jaw to a line coming from the ear to the bottom of the nose. 4 The direct application of craniology to racial divisions traces to about 1770, when anatomist and artist Pieter Camper (1722-1789) devised the “facial angle,” to distinguish among different human races and apes. But it was not until anatomist-artists such as Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), and, especially, Anders Vesalius (1514-1564) conducted systematic, empirical studies that variations in the shapes of skulls were finally recognized. Since Hippocrates (470-360 BCE) in ancient Greece, physicians had studied the skull. Anatomical analysis allowed for repeated observation and precise measurement, and was, therefore, considered more consistent than conflicting and hard-to-verify field reports. In the waning decades of the 18 th century, the collection, trade, dissection, and study of bodies and bones provided an anatomical basis for racial divisions. ![]() 3 All of these early racial classifications were largely the product of written field reports and observations until the late 18 th century and the rise of comparative anatomy. Other authors relied on their scholarly expertise as naturalists, as did, for example, the Swedish taxonomist Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1788). Some of these authors spoke from the authority of their own experience in Africa, Asia, or the Americas, as did Bernier. These reports often supplied highly ethnocentric descriptions of skin color, temperament, and other features which were used to classify human races. 2 Bernier’s classification was typical of those that followed through the 18 th century, which were based on observations and reports from travelers, missionaries, and colonial officials. In 1684, Bernier classified humans into distinct races based on geography. 1 One of the first Europeans to classify humans based on race was the French physician and traveler François Bernier (1620-1688). This idea stipulated innate, inherited, unchanging differences, behavioral as well as physical, in human groups. However, it was not until the rise of European exploration, conquest, and colonialism that something like the modern concept of “race” begin to take hold. Records from ancient Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Hebrew, Chinese, and other civilizations remarked upon the distinctions among the languages, customs, and appearance of peoples. Illustration of facial angles of humans, apes, and monkeys from Camper (1791).ĭifferences in the physical and behavioral characteristics of peoples have been noted since antiquity. Furthermore, craniology’s association with “race science” gave it widespread influence through the early 20 th century and closely connected craniology to the development of physical anthropology. The study of medicine, anatomy, and art were all important to the development of craniology. In the last few hundred years, craniological methods, like measuring the angle of the face, the size of the braincase, or the ratio of the length to the breadth of the head, have been used to classify people into racial groupings, to make claims about alleged differences in intelligence, and to study human variation. For updates on the Museum’s work towards the repatriation and burial of the Morton Collection, please refer to this page.Ĭraniology is the study of the skull.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |