In a subject that is constantly confused by partisanship it is important
to make no greater claims for an argument than the facts absolutely
warrant. Accordingly, I hasten to explain what has really been shown and
what I have failed to show hitherto. It is, I think, fair to say that
culture cannot be adequately explained by race, and that the same race
varies extraordinarily in culture even within a very narrow space of
time. But we have not furnished proof that, say, the Central African
Pygmies, the Tasmanians, or the aborigines of Australia would have been
capable of attaining unaided to the level of our civilization. What we
can say, however, is this: The Chinese and some of our American Indians,
such as the ancient Central Americans and Peruvians, did attain a very
high level, which may be equated with that of Europe at a relatively
recent period. The difference between European culture then and now
cannot be due to hereditary causes, and it would, therefore, be
unjustifiable to allege that such causes account for the difference
between Europe of today and China or ancient Central America. Quite
generally it is true that the so-called primitive tribes are anything
but primitive in the strict sense of the term. Ingenious contrivances,
such as the boomerang, occur among the Australians, usually regarded as
one of the lowliest of races, and here we also find a remarkable
complexity of social organization. The Negroes of Africa are not only
conversant with the art of metallurgy, which is possibly their own
invention, but are conspicuous for their ability to form large and
powerful political states and have shown at least the ability of
assimilating the culture of Islam. If we contrast Negro culture on the
average not with the highest products of Dutch, Danish, or Swiss
culture, but with the status of the illiterate peasant communities in
not a few regions of Europe, the difference will hardly be so great as
to suggest any far-reaching hereditary causes. As the highly civilized
Manchu of today have for their next racial kin very crude Siberian
populations, so the white race, even today, embraces very primitive as
well as highly advanced constituent groups. We cannot wholly isolate the
racial factor from others, and we cannot give an ocular demonstration of
what the several inferior races, so-called, are capable of achieving
under the most favorable conditions. But with great confidence we can
say that since the same race at different times or in different
subdivisions at the same time represents vastly different cultural
stages, there is obviously no direct _proportional_ relation between
culture and race. And if great changes of culture can occur without any
change of race whatsoever, we are justified in considering it probable
that a relatively minute change of hereditary ability might produce
enormous differences. An analogy may render the matter clearer. Suppose
that it is of vital importance to lift a heavy weight, say 400 pounds,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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