The Moral and Intellectual Diversity of Races: With Particular Reference to Their Respective Influence in the Civil and Political History of MankindGobineau, Arthur, comte de
Philosophy
The Moral and Intellectual Diversity of Races: With Particular Reference to Their Respective Influence in the Civil and Political History of Mankind
-------------------------+-----------+----------+----------+----------
| Number | | |
| of skulls | Average | Maximum. | Minimum.
| measured. | capacity.| |
-------------------------|-----------|----------|----------|----------
White races | 52 | 87 | 109 | 75
Yellow races {Mongolians| 10 | 83 | 93 | 69
{Malays | 18 | 81 | 89 | 64
Copper-colored races | 147 | 82 | 100 | 60
Negroes | 29 | 78 | 94 | 65
-------------------------+-----------+----------+----------+----------
The results given in the first two columns are certainly very curious,
but to those in the last two I attach little value. These two columns,
giving the maximum and minimum capacities, differ so greatly from the
second, which shows the average, that they could be of weight only if
Mr. Morton had experimented upon a much greater number of skulls, and if
he had specified the social position of the individuals to whom they
belonged. Thus, for his specimens of the white and copper-colored races,
he might select skulls that had belonged to individuals rather above the
common herd.[129] But the Blacks and Mongolians were not represented by
the skulls of their great chiefs and mandarins. This explains why Dr.
Morton could ascribe the figure 100 to an aboriginal of America, while
the most intelligent Mongolian that he examined did not exceed 93, and
is surpassed even by the negro, who reaches 94. Such results are
entirely incomplete, fortuitous, and of no scientific value. In
questions of this kind, too much care cannot be taken to reject
conclusions which are based upon the examination of individualities. I
am, therefore, unable to accept the second half of Dr. Morton's
calculations.
I am also disposed to doubt one of the details in the other half. The
figures 100, 83, and 78, respectively indicating the average capacity of
the skull of the white, Mongolian, and negro, follow a clear and evident
gradation. But the figures 83, 81, and 82, given for the Mongol, the
Malay, and the red-skin, are conflicting; the more so, as Mr. Carus does
not hesitate to comprise the Mongols and Malays into one and the same
race, and thus unites the figures 83 and 81--by which he receives, as
the average capacity of the yellow race, 82, or the same as that of the
red-skins. Wherefore, then, take the figure 82 as the characteristic of
a distinct race, and thus create, quite arbitrarily, a fourth great
subdivision of our species.
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