UID:
almahu_9949880715002882
Format:
1 online resource.
ISBN:
9781351732147
,
1351732145
,
9781315184777
,
131518477X
,
9781351732154
,
1351732153
,
9781351732130
,
1351732137
Series Statement:
Routledge studies in the history of science, technology and medicine
Content:
The major significance of the German naturalist-physician Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752?1840) as a topic of historical study is the fact that he was one of the first anthropologists to investigate humankind as part of natural history. Moreover, Blumenbach was, and continues to be, a central figure in debates about race and racism. How exactly did Blumenbach define race and races? What were his scientific criteria? And which cultural values did he bring to bear on his scheme? Little historical work has been done on Blumenbach's fundamental, influential race work. From his own time till today, several different pronouncements have been made by either followers or opponents, some accusing Blumenbach of being the fountainhead of scientific racism. By contrast, across early nineteenth-century Europe, not least in France, Blumenbach was lionized as an anti-racist whose work supported the unity of humankind and the abolition of slavery. This collection of essays considers how, with Blumenbach and those around him, the study of natural history and, by extension, that of science came to dominate the Western discourse of race.
Note:
Introduction : brief history of Blumenbach representation / Nicolaas Rupke and Gerhard Lauer -- Johann Friedrich Blumenbach-online / Gerhard Lauer and Heiko Weber -- Buffon, Blumenbach, Herder, Lichtenberg and the origins of modern anthropology / Carl Niekerk -- Climate change and creolization in French natural history, 1750-1795 / E.C. Spary -- Blumenbach's collection of human skulls / Wolfgang Böker -- Blumenbach's theory of human races and the natural unity of humankind / Thomas Junker -- A defence of human rights : Blumenbach on albinism / Renato G. Mazzolini -- Blumenbach's race science in the light of Christian supersessionism / Terence Keel -- The beautiful skulls of Schiller and the Georgian girl : quantitative and aesthetic scaling of the races, 1750-1850 / Robert J. Richards -- Ethnographic exploration in the Blumenbachian tradition / Peter Hanns Reill -- The rise of paleontology and the historicization of nature : Blumenbach and Deluc / John H. Zammito -- The roots of scientific racism and Huxley's rule / Nicolaas Rupke -- Appendix: biographical sketch of Blumenbach.
Additional Edition:
Print version: Johann Friedrich Blumenbach Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2018. ISBN 9781138738423 (hardback : alk. paper)
Language:
English
DOI:
10.4324/9781315184777
URL:
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781315184777
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