Question

In: Psychology

Today, scientist believe that, “The concept of race simply has no basis in fundamental human biology.”...

Today, scientist believe that, “The concept of race simply has no basis in fundamental human biology.” But, as one historian wrote, “The nineteenth century was obsessed with the idea that it was race which explained the character of peoples.” How and why did scientific racists attempt to use science to explain racial difference? What sorts of evidence did they use to construct racial categories? How did some critics refute their views?

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Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.

(Answer) Anatomic knowledge before the Second World War wasn’t as adept at understanding the human body as it is today. Human beings would succumb to simple diseases that are easily curable today. Furthermore, methods for testing were not as advanced as they are today.

Let us take the Morton collection of skulls for instance. The Morton collection is a collection of human skulls collected by the physical anthropologist Morton in the 19th century. Morton used his resources to prove polygenesis. This would mean that each human ethnic group is a species of their own.

An anthropologist named Gould later refuted this analysis in the 1980’s, saying that the studies were biased. Gould claimed that the research was selective, measurements were flawed and that the study was heavily racist by trying to claim that each ethnicity is a different species.

Modern scientist studies the Morton skulls, Morton’s work and Gould’s work. These scientists managed to prove that it wasn’t Morton but actually Gould that was the biased scientist who aimed to disprove Morton through selective research. Morton’s studies were flawed, simply because he was limited by the resources of his time.

There is no denying that people engaged in scientific research even at that time were opinion leaders of the society. As an opinion leader, it would be a great challenge to negate the preconceived notions that the majority already hold. Saying that humans evolved from apes and not descended from “Adam and Eve” or saying that all races are essentially biologically similar would be something outrageous. Such revelations would cause a scientist to lose their status as most forward thinkers usually did.

Furthermore, it wasn’t unnatural for an elite man of science to be racist themselves. These people would agree with bigoted rulers and conventions of society. Therefore, the limited scientific resources and the pressure to conform to society would have been enough cause for a scientist to make racist claims. However, each scientist would have their own reason for adhering to bigoted beliefs.


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