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From the Curse of Ham to the curse of nature: the influence of natural selection on the debate on human unity before the publication of The Descent of Man

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2007

ROBERT KENNY
ROBERT KENNY
Affiliation:
The Australian Centre, School of Historical Studies, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Email: kennyr@unimelb.edu.au.
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Abstract

This paper examines the debate engendered in ethnological and anthropological circles by Darwin's Origin of Species and its effects. The debate was more about the nature of human diversity than about transmutation. By 1859 many polygenists thought monogenism had been clearly shown to be an antiquated and essentially religious concept. Yet the doctrine of natural selection gave rise to a ‘new monogenism’. Proponents of polygenism such as James Hunt claimed natural selection had finally excluded monogenism, but Thomas Huxley, the most prominent exponent of the new monogenism, claimed it amalgamated the ‘best’ of both polygenism and monogenism. What it did provide was an explanation for the irreversible inequality of races, while it maintained that all humans were of one species. This bolstered belief in the innate superiority of the Caucasians over other peoples. The effect was finally to sever British ethnology from its evangelical monogenist roots. More subtly and surprisingly, it provided support in Church circles for a move away from the ideal of the ‘Native Church’.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 40 , Issue 3 , September 2007 , pp. 367 - 388
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 2007

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