ANT101H5 Lecture Notes - Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, Carl Linnaeus, Essentialism
Document Summary
Establish a hypothesis: define a relevant problem, determine the empirical implications of the hypothesis, collect appropriate data through observation and/or experimentation, reject, revise , and/or retest hypothesis as necessary, deductive versus inductive reasoning. Test the hypothesis by comparing these data with the expected implications. Linneaus 1758 classificatory: separated humans into 5 categories, americanus, europaeus, asiaticus, afer, monstrosus. Varieties of the human species (1749: descriptive, rejected classifications, emphasized unity of species, behavioral & cultural biases. Blumenbach (1752-1840) focused on landmarks and characteristics of the skull taking dozens of measurements and observations: adhered to essentialist racial categories, 5 racial types father of physical anthropology for his osteometrics. Goal was for the betterment of the human species by the selective breeding for favorable traits. Francis galton: 1869 heredity genius , prominence is inborn, statistics, used biology to reinforce social prejudices. Charles davenport: 1911 heredity in relation to eugenics , established eugenics in us scientific program.
