Anthropological race psychology 1820–1945: a common European system of ethnic identity narratives

Abstract

This article examines ethnic stereotypes in biological race classification of Europeans between the 1830s and 1940s as part of political discourse on national identity. Anthropologists linked physical-psychological types to nations and national character stereotypes through 'national races', achieving an often quite enduring international consensus on each race's mentality. The article argues that race mentality narratives were therefore partly dictated by their place within a dynamic interlocking European system. I focus on two key interacting elements that structured this system: the central role of the Germanic-Nordic blond and the geographically uneven process of modernisation. I consider the spatiality of socio-cultural and political factors 'external' to the stereotype system, such as geopolitics and modernisation, but also emphasise that discursive relationships between national stereotypes helped structure the international stereotype system. My conclusion argues for greater consideration of the influence of both scientific and international systemic factors in research on national identity.

InventingHomo gardarensis: Prestige, Pressure, and Human Evolution in Interwar Scandinavia

“…This fault was due to a characteristic of the northern temperament, the obsession of a one-idea. Scandinavians pledge allegiance to a goal and leave no stone unturned to reach that 7 For a discussion of European systems of ethnic narratives, see McMahon 2009. goal, but once having attained it their ambition subsides. This devotion to an end often brings about incongruities and sharp contrasts.…”

“…Historical studies of the relationship between human biology and European culture and politics habitually focus on racial hierarchies, eugenics, and genocide (Turda and Weindling 2007; Neumann 1998; Smedley 1998; McMahon 2009; Kohli 2000; Jahoda 2009; Bashford and Levine 2010; Broberg and Roll-Hansen 2005). Richard McMahon, for instance, has argued that national races helped to naturalize and reinforce alliances and enmities, linking specific nationalities to attractive races like the Nordic in order to claim racial nobility in or other cases to justify colonial possessions (McMahon 2009, 577). As these issues are of extreme importance in understanding crucial and darker aspects of European history, especially in the twentieth century, they have eclipsed a highly significant link between studies of human evolution and the making of a European identity.…”

Racism and Nationalism

“…There are some differences in the sorting mechanisms of racism and nationalism. In its 19thcentury version, "race" assumes that humans can be sorted into a small number of categories that are typically visually identifiable, biological in origin, and fixed and unchanging (Morning 2011;McMahon 2009). Racists are generally hostile to the mixing of races, and they prioritize racial "purity."…”

“…There are some differences in the sorting mechanisms of racism and nationalism. In its 19th-century version, “race” assumes that humans can be sorted into a small number of categories that are typically visually identifiable, biological in origin, and fixed and unchanging (Morning 2011; McMahon 2009). Racists are generally hostile to the mixing of races, and they prioritize racial “purity.” By the end of the 19th century, it was widely believed that humans could be grouped into five races (white, black, Asian, American, Polynesian), identifiable by skin color, hair, shape of eye, nose, and other phenotypical features.…”