On the phenomena of hybridity in the genus HomoBroca, Paul
Science
On the phenomena of hybridity in the genus Homo
Broca, Paul
Hominids -- Hybridization; Miscegenation
But when the intermixture of races is effected in nearly equal
proportions, or if it be the result, not of one invasion, but of a
constant and abundant immigration, the case is altogether different,
and the fusion of the ethnological elements gives rise to a hybrid
population, in which the number of individuals of a pure race is
constantly diminishing, so that at the termination of a few centuries
the representatives of the two primitive types become the exceptions.
In a long Memoir “On the Ethnology of France,” which I lately read
before the Anthropological Society of Paris, I have shown to what
extent intermixture may modify the physiognomy of a people. Examining
in the first place the records of history on hand, the origin of
the populations of our departments, and appreciating as much as
possible the proportion of the elements which we find in combination;
determining, also, for each region the principal and the accessory
stocks, I have been enabled to find in the present French nation, in
the midst of the innumerable variations of stature, complexion, hair,
eyes, cephalic shapes, etc., which may everywhere be expected in mixed
races; I have been able to detect, I repeat, the characters of these
different races, and to recognise the more or less marked and dominant
impress of the Celts, Kimris, Romans, and Germans. I was even enabled,
on the statistics of recruiting, to give to my inquiries, in regard
to stature, a rigorous precision. I cannot in this place enter into
any details: I am obliged to refer the reader to the Memoir, which is
published by the Anthropological Society. In point of fact, it was
merely because eminent men have for some years doubted the existence of
eugenesic hybridity in mankind, that it became necessary to demonstrate
so evident a proposition, that the population of France in at least
nineteen-twentieths of our territory, presents in unequal degrees the
characters of mixed races.
This single example might suffice; but I have no doubt that by
examining in a similar manner the historical origin and the actual
condition of the peoples of Northern Italy, Southern Germany, Great
Britain--not to speak of the United States, where the fusion of
blood is probably inexplicable--it might be demonstrated with equal
certainty, that these different races have given birth, by their
intermixture, to ethnological modifications still recognisable. In all
these countries is the instability of anthropological characters in
contrast with the fixity which is the mark of pure races; and we might
say, without fear of error, that the greater part of Western Europe is
inhabited by mixed races.
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