ANT102H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Franz Boas, Social Darwinism, Ethnocentrism
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Document Summary
The age of exploration, the rise of capitalism. The idea of another race and savage was first imposed on the savage irish race by the english. The irish were seen as lazy, filthy, barbarous, superstitious and inclined to commit crime. These ideas were based on a religious doctrine and the irish were seen as morally inferior. The rise of science: these ideas were also used for african americans and native americans. These ideas were based on a scientific doctrine and african americans and native americans were seen as biologically inferior: science established, created and justified race and racial inferiority. Early europeans were very intent on categorizing people, animals and their origin. Franz boas began to challenge ideas of racial inferiority/superiority. He provided data to disprove these theories by proving that skull and facial measurements can change over one"s lifetime (human plasticity) and are not fixed.
