Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
European anthropologists to dub the anthropology in that country as “The American School
of Anthropology”(
Brace, 2005
). Under this umbrella fits the research of Samuel George
Morton.
Morton was an anatomist with an interest in craniometry working in Philadelphia. The
movement towards an emphasis on skull measurement was an extension of typological
theory, since it attempted to show from a biological and evolutionary standpoint the hierar-
chical arrangement of the races (
Gould, 1981
). Morton collected human skulls from around
the world to measure. He was particularly interested in cranial (braincase) capacity, because
he felt that particular measure would show unequivocally the correct racial hierarchical
arrangement. His results demonstrated that Caucasoids had the highest cranial capacity;
however, reanalysis of his data a century later by Gould demonstrated that Morton had either
deliberately or subconsciously manipulated the data to fit his preconceived notions (
Gould,
1978
). Interestingly, Gould's work has recently been reanalyzed as well, and like Morton's,
may have been inadvertently biased (
Brace, 2005; Lewis et al., 2011
).
Morton produced several volumes on craniometry describing in detail the relationship
between the races as explicitly “proven” by science (e.g.,
Morton, 1839
). Unsurprisingly
based on his predetermined ideas, his results showed that white males were superior to
others in terms of cranial capacity, with white females and people of other races lagging
behind. His work not only was used as support for social policies of the time (e.g., justifica-
tion of slavery in the United States), but also has been used by other researchers looking for
biological justification for hierarchical classification of the races (e.g.,
Rushton, 1995
). Another
researcher doing similar work was Paul Broca, surgery professor and founder of the Anthro-
pology Society of Paris in the mid-nineteenth century. He was interested in the physical
weights of brains in order to establish a link between race, brain size, and intelligence (
Gould,
1981
). While his work was inconclusive, it has not stopped others from attempting similar
comparisons, even up to the relative present day (i.e.,
Herrnstein and Murray, 1994
).
HRDLICKA, HOOTON, AND BOAS: THREE KEY FIGURES IN THE
DEVELOPMENT OF THE DISCIPLINE
Three of the most important historical figures in the development of American physical
anthropology are Ale
cka, Franz Boas, and Earnest Hooton. Their differing viewpoints
on race continue to impact the field today. While Hrdli
s Hrdli
cka and Hooton had similar views,
Boas occupied a different camp entirely. Their scientific differences can be summed up
into two opposite viewpoints on how to explain human variation: (1) as a result of separate
evolutionary pathways leading to different races (Hrdli
cka and Hooton) versus (2) emphasis
on the influence of environmental variables (i.e., culture, nutrition, stress, climate, etc.) on
variation (Boas).
The former viewpoint is typological and focuses on creating categories based on arbitrary
physical characteristics (skin color, facial features, etc.), which become linked to cultural char-
acteristics. As such, typology inherently includes aspects of biological determinism
d
the
concept that biology dictates not only physical traits, but sociocultural traits as well (e.g.,
“level” of civilization, language, intelligence, and so on). In other words, biological deter-
minism states that an individual is destined for a certain fate socially and culturally
