The mind of primitive man : $b A course of lectures delivered before the Lowell Institute, Boston, Mass., and the National University of Mexico, 1910-1911Boas, Franz
Science
The mind of primitive man : $b A course of lectures delivered before the Lowell Institute, Boston, Mass., and the National University of Mexico, 1910-1911
Boas, Franz
Ethnopsychology; Race
When all these differences between races are given, the question arises,
whether they have any significance in regard to mental faculty. I may be
permitted to disregard for the moment differences in the size and
structural development of the nervous system, and confine myself to the
mental significance of other traits. The general analogy of mental
development of animals and of man prompts us to associate lower mental
traits with theromorphic features. In our naïve, every-day parlance,
brutish features and brutality are closely connected. We must
distinguish here, however, between the anatomical characteristics of
which we have been speaking and the muscular development of the face,
trunk, and limbs, due to habitual activity. The hand, which is never
employed in activities requiring those refined adjustments which are
characteristic of psychologically complex actions, will lack the
modelling brought about by the development of each muscle. The face
whose muscles have not responded to the innervations accompanying deep
thought and refined sentiment will lack in individuality and refinement.
The neck that has supported heavy loads, and has not responded to the
varied requirements of delicate changes of position of head and body,
will appear massive and clumsy. These physiognomic differences must not
mislead us in our interpretations. But even without them, we are
inclined to draw inferences in regard to mentality from a receding
forehead, a heavy jaw, large and heavy teeth, perhaps even from an
inordinate length of arms or an unusual development of hairiness.
From a strictly scientific point of view, these inferences seem to be
open to the most serious doubt. Only a few investigations have been made
in relation to these problems, but their results have been entirely
negative. Most important among them is the elaborate attempt made by
Karl Pearson to investigate the relationship of intelligence to size and
shape of the head. His conclusions are so significant that I will repeat
them here: “The onus of proof that other measurements and more subtle
psychological observations would lead to more definite results may now,
I think, be left to those who _a priori_ regard such an association as
probable. Personally, the result of the present inquiry has convinced me
that there is little relationship between the external physical and the
psychical character in man.” I think all the investigations that have
been made up to the present time compel us to assume that the
characteristics of the osseous, muscular, visceral, or circulatory
system, have practically no direct relation to the mental ability of man
(Manouvrier).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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