Monogenism

Last updated

Monogenism or sometimes monogenesis is the theory of human origins which posits a common descent for all humans. The negation of monogenism is polygenism. This issue was hotly debated in the Western world in the nineteenth century, as the assumptions of scientific racism came under scrutiny both from religious groups and in the light of developments in the life sciences and human science. It was integral to the early conceptions of ethnology.

Contents

Modern scientific views favor this theory, with the most widely accepted model for human origins being the "Out of Africa" theory.

In the Abrahamic religions

The belief that all humans are descended from Adam is central to traditional Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Christian monogenism played an important role in the development of an African-American literature on race, linked to theology rather than science, up to the time of Martin Delany and his Principia of Ethnology (1879). [1] Scriptural ethnology is a term applied to debate and research on the biblical accounts, both of the early patriarchs and migration after Noah's Flood, to explain the diverse peoples of the world. Monogenism as a Bible-based theory required both the completeness of the narratives and the fullness of their power of explanation. These time-honored debates were sharpened by the rise of polygenist skeptical claims; when Louis Agassiz set out his polygenist views in 1847, they were opposed on biblical grounds by John Bachman, and by Thomas Smyth in his Unity of the Human Races. The debates also saw the participation of Delany, and George Washington Williams defended monogenesis as the starting point of his pioneer history of African-Americans. [2] [3]

Environmentalist monogenism

Environmentalist monogenism describes a theory current in the first half of the nineteenth century, in particular, according to which there was a single human origin, but that subsequent migration of groups of humans had subjected them to different environmental conditions.

Environmentalism in this sense was found in the writings of Samuel Stanhope Smith. [4] The theory stated that perceived differences, such as human skin color, were, therefore, products of history. A proponent of this approach to monogenism was James Cowles Prichard. It was discussed in the context of the knowledge of the time of historical linguistics. [5]

Prichard died in 1848; in 1850 Robert Knox published his The Races of Men, arguing the intrinsic physical and mental characteristics of races. [6] This work was a major influence to the anti-environmentalist and polygenist case on race and origins. [7] In The Effect of Circumstances upon the Physical Man (1854) Frederick Douglass argued for an environmentalist monogenism, following Prichard, Bachman, and Robert Gordon Latham, but also in the tradition of Hosea Easton and James McCune Smith. For Douglass, monogenesis was closely related to egalitarianism and his politics of black humanity. [3] [8]

Monogenism under attack in France

In France of the 1850s, monogenism was an unfashionable point of view. Polygenism was supported by physicians, anthropologists, taxonomists and zoologists; and the biblical associations of monogenism held against it in scientific circles. Paul Topinard, an early physical anthropologist, associated monogenism with backwardness and narrow intellectual horizons. [9] Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages de Bréau was a major French voice for monogenism of the period. The debate became entrenched with that on freethought. [10]

Mid-century contention in the United Kingdom

Around 1850 polygenism was a rising intellectual trend. On the other hand, monogenism retained support in London's learned societies. The Ethnological Society of London had the monogenist tradition of Thomas Hodgkin and James Cowles Prichard, continuing in Robert Gordon Latham. Others on that side of the debate were William Benjamin Carpenter, Charles Darwin, Edward Forbes, Henry Holland, Charles Lyell, and Richard Owen. [11] The direction of the Ethnological Society was challenged by James Hunt, a polygenist who became a secretary in 1859, [12] and John Crawfurd, who was president two years later, who believed in a large number of separately created racial groups. [13]

In the face of advocates of polygenism, monogenism received a second wind after the recognition of the antiquity of man, and the almost simultaneous publication of Darwin's theory of evolution. Once the biblical timescale of 6000 years was dropped, the objections to environmentalist monogenism were weakened, since the "unity and migration" hypothesis of the origins of human diversity could operate over tens of thousands of years. Since polygenists such as Hunt and Crawfurd were opponents of Darwin, monogenism became part of a larger debate on evolution.

Biology, specific unity, and varieties of man

Polygenism, in its biological form, asserted that different races corresponded to different species. Monogenism, therefore, attracted interest to the biological assertion of "specific unity", or single species theory of humankind. An argument brought against monogenism in its environmentalist form was that it involved a Lamarckian hypothesis on inheritance. This debating point was used, for example, by Agassiz. James Lawrence Cabell argued that reference to Lamarck was irrelevant to determining whether specific unity was a scientific fact. [14] Cabell's view was of common creation of humankind, which had "permanent varieties" in the form of races. [15]

Augustus Henry Keane in 1896 wrote of:

[...] two assumptions, both strenuously denied by many ethnologists, firstly, that the Hominidæ descend from a single precursor, secondly, that their differences are comparatively slight, or not sufficiently pronounced to be regarded as specific.

These assumptions, Keane argued, would justify putting race on the same footing as the botanical concept of variety. [16] He described his own views as "unorthodox monogenesis". [17] Monogenism was compatible with racial discrimination, via the argument on disposition to accept "civilization". [18]

Interfertility and biological unity

The interfertility of human races was debated, applying to human speciation arguments advanced already by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon. The criterion of interfertility for a single human species was not universally accepted, being rejected, for example, by Samuel George Morton. [19]

Charles Darwin regarded the evidence of interfertility as conclusive and substantiating the biological unity of humankind. He rejected claims of Paul Broca concerning the lack of fertility of unions of European settlers and Aboriginal Australians, and relied on data of John Bachman of the fertility of mulatto (mixed race) persons. [20] On the other hand, Darwin's theory admitted the idea of "varieties of man": it was neither purely monogenist (in the sense of the term previously used), nor polygenist. [6]

Modern scientific views

In modern times, the scientific community widely favours monogenism due to evidence that shows modern humans share a common evolutionary origin in Africa.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Sandra G. Harding, The "Racial" Economy of Science: toward a democratic future (1993), p. 176; Google Books.
  2. ↑ Lester D. Stephens, Science, Race, and Religion in the American South: John Bachman and the Charleston Circle of naturalists, 1815-1895 (2000), p. 293, note 6; Google Books.
  3. 1 2 Colin Kidd, The Forging of Races: race and scripture in the Protestant Atlantic world, 1600-2000 (2006), p. 250; Google Books.
  4. ↑ Bruce R. Dain, A Hideous Monster of the Mind: American race theory in the early republic (2002), p. 40; Google Books.
  5. ↑ Scott Mandelbrote, Nature and Scripture in the Abrahamic Religions: 1700-Present, Volume 2 (2008), p. 149; Google Books.
  6. 1 2 G. N. Cantor, Marc Swetlitz, Jewish Tradition and the Challenge of Darwinism (2006), pp. 90–1; Google Books.
  7. ↑ Simon Szreter, Fertility, Class and Gender in Britain, 1860-1940 (2002), p. 130 in note; Google Books.
  8. ↑ Waldo E. Martin, The Mind of Frederick Douglass (1986), p. 231; Google Books.
  9. ↑ William B. Cohen, James D. Le Sueur, The French Encounter with Africans: white response to Blacks, 1530-1880 (1980), p. 234; Google Books.
  10. ↑ Hecht, Jennifer Michael (2003). The End of the Soul: Scientific Modernity, Atheism, and Anthropology in France. Columbia University Press. p. 119. ISBN   0231128460.
  11. ↑ Adrian Desmond and James Moore, Darwin's Sacred Cause (2009), p. 400 note 27.
  12. ↑ Brock, W. H. "Hunt, James". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/14194.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  13. ↑ David N. Livingstone, Adam's Ancestors: race, religion, and the politics of human origins, 2008, p. 113; Google Books.
  14. ↑ James Lawrence Cabell, The Testimony of Modern Science to the Unity of Mankind (1860, 2010 reprint); Google Books.
  15. ↑ Gregory Michael Dorr, Segregation's Science: eugenics and society in Virginia (2008), p. 33; Google Books.
  16. ↑ Augustus Henry Keane, Ethnology: Fundamental Ethnical Problems; The Primary Ethnical Groups (1896; 2011 reprint); Google Books.
  17. ↑ Bernard V. Lightman, Victorian Science in Context (1997), p. 225; Google Books.
  18. ↑ Joshua Goode, Impurity of Blood: defining race in Spain, 1870-1930 (2009), p. 67; Google Books.
  19. ↑ Elise Lemire, Miscegenation: Making Race in America (2009), p. 113; Google Books.
  20. ↑ Joseph L. Graves, The Emperor's New Clothes: Biological Theories of Race at the Millennium (2003), p. 65; Google Books.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biological anthropology</span> Branch of anthropology that studies the physical development of the human species

Biological anthropology, also known as physical anthropology, is a social science discipline concerned with the biological and behavioral aspects of human beings, their extinct hominin ancestors, and related non-human primates, particularly from an evolutionary perspective. This subfield of anthropology systematically studies human beings from a biological perspective.

The Ethnological Society of London (ESL) was a learned society founded in 1843 as an offshoot of the Aborigines' Protection Society (APS). The meaning of ethnology as a discipline was not then fixed: approaches and attitudes to it changed over its lifetime, with the rise of a more scientific approach to human diversity. Over three decades the ESL had a chequered existence, with periods of low activity and a major schism contributing to a patchy continuity of its meetings and publications. It provided a forum for discussion of what would now be classed as pioneering scientific anthropology from the changing perspectives of the period, though also with wider geographical, archaeological and linguistic interests.

The Anthropological Society of London (ASL) was a short-lived organisation of the 1860s whose founders aimed to furnish scientific evidence for white supremacy which they construed in terms of polygenism. It was founded in 1863 by Richard Francis Burton and James Hunt. Hunt had previously been the secretary of the Ethnological Society of London, which was founded in 1843. When he founded the breakaway ASL, Hunt claimed that society had "the object of promoting the study of Anthropology in a strictly scientific manner". Nevertheless he reminded his audience that, whatever evidence might be uncovered, "we still know that the Races of Europe now have much in their mental and moral nature which the races of Africa have not got." The ASL only lasted 8 years: following Hunt's death in 1869 it was absorbed into the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.

The concept of race as a categorization of anatomically modern humans has an extensive history in Europe and the Americas. The contemporary word race itself is modern; historically it was used in the sense of "nation, ethnic group" during the 16th to 19th centuries. Race acquired its modern meaning in the field of physical anthropology through scientific racism starting in the 19th century. With the rise of modern genetics, the concept of distinct human races in a biological sense has become obsolete. In 2019, the American Association of Biological Anthropologists stated: "The belief in 'races' as natural aspects of human biology, and the structures of inequality (racism) that emerge from such beliefs, are among the most damaging elements in the human experience both today and in the past."

Scientific racism, sometimes termed biological racism, is the pseudoscientific belief that the human species is divided into biologically distinct taxa called "races", and that empirical evidence exists to support or justify racial discrimination, racial inferiority, or racial superiority. Before the mid-20th century, scientific racism was accepted throughout the scientific community, but it is no longer considered scientific. The division of humankind into biologically separate groups, along with the assignment of particular physical and mental characteristics to these groups through constructing and applying corresponding explanatory models, is referred to as racialism, race realism, or race science by those who support these ideas. Modern scientific consensus rejects this view as being irreconcilable with modern genetic research.

<i>The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex</i> 1871 book by Charles Darwin

The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex is a book by English naturalist Charles Darwin, first published in 1871, which applies evolutionary theory to human evolution, and details his theory of sexual selection, a form of biological adaptation distinct from, yet interconnected with, natural selection. Darwin used the word "descent" to mean lineal descendant of ancestors. The book discusses many related issues, including evolutionary psychology, evolutionary ethics, evolutionary musicology, differences between human races, differences between sexes, the dominant role of women in mate choice, and the relevance of the evolutionary theory to society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages de Bréau</span> French biologist (1810–1892)

Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages de Bréau was a French biologist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Cowles Prichard</span> English physician and anthropologist (1786–1848)

James Cowles Prichard was a British physician and ethnologist with broad interests in physical anthropology and psychiatry. His influential Researches into the Physical History of Mankind touched upon the subject of evolution. From 1845, Prichard served as a Medical Commissioner in Lunacy. He also introduced the term "senile dementia".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel George Morton</span> American physician and naturalist (1799–1851)

Samuel George Morton was an American physician, natural scientist, and writer. As one of the early figures of scientific racism, he argued against monogenism, the single creation story of the Bible, instead supporting polygenism, a theory of multiple racial creations.

Polygenism is a theory of human origins which posits the view that the humans are of different origins (polygenesis). This view is opposite to the idea of monogenism, which posits a single origin of humanity. Modern scientific views find little merit in any polygenic model due to an increased understanding of speciation in a human context, with the monogenic "Out of Africa" hypothesis and its variants being the most widely accepted models for human origins. Polygenism has historically been heavily used in service of white supremacist ideas and practices, denying a common origin between European and non-European peoples. It can be distinguished between Biblical polygenism, describing a Pre-Adamite or Co-Adamite origin of certain races in the context of the Genesis narrative of Adam and Eve, and scientific polygenism, attempting to find a taxonomic basis for ideas of racial science.

Monogenism or monogenesis is the theory of human origins which posits a common descent for all human races.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Gordon Latham</span> British ethnologist and philologist (1812–1888)

Robert Gordon Latham FRS was an English ethnologist and philologist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josiah C. Nott</span> American physician (1804–1873)

Josiah Clark Nott was an American surgeon, anthropologist and ethnologist. He is known for his studies into the etiology of yellow fever and malaria, including the theory that they are caused by germs, and for his espousal of scientific racism.

In historical or evolutionary linguistics, monogenesis and polygenesis are two different hypotheses about the phylogenetic origin of human languages. According to monogenesis, human language arose only once in a single community, and all current languages come from the first original tongue. On the other hand, according to polygenesis, human languages came into being in several communities independently, and current tongues derived from different sources.

Mongoloid is an obsolete racial grouping of various peoples indigenous to large parts of Asia, the Americas, and some regions in Europe and Oceania. The term is derived from a now-disproven theory of biological race. In the past, other terms such as "Mongolian race", "yellow", "Asiatic" and "Oriental" have been used as synonyms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Dunn (surgeon)</span>

Robert Dunn was a British surgeon.

The discovery of human antiquity was a major achievement of science in the middle of the 19th century, and the foundation of scientific paleoanthropology. The antiquity of man, human antiquity, or in simpler language the age of the human race, are names given to the series of scientific debates it involved, which with modifications continue in the 21st century. These debates have clarified and given scientific evidence, from a number of disciplines, towards solving the basic question of dating the first human being.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Frédéric Edwards</span> Jamaican-born English-French physiologist

William Frédéric Edwards (1777–1842) was a French physiologist, of Jamaican background, who was also a pioneer anthropologist. He has been called "the father of ethnology in France". He is remembered largely for his principle of the permanency of physical "types." He was also a leader in the new science of "linguistique" and proposed a new branch of comparative philology based on pronunciation.

Thomas Bendyshe (1827–1886) was an English barrister and academic, known as a magazine proprietor and translator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Smyth (minister)</span> American Presbyterian Minister

Thomas Smyth was an American Presbyterian minister. He served as minister of Second Presbyterian Church in Charleston, South Carolina for more than 40 years, from 1832 until his death.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.