Pre-adamism in 19th century American thought: “Speculative biology” and racism

Popkin, Richard H.

doi:10.1007/bf02379241

Cited by 30 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Who were their ancestors? The explorers had to elucidate whether 'Indians', those beings of the New World, were part of the human lineage, and in the biblical tradition the question referred to whether they were descendants of Adam whose souls could therefore be saved (Gerbi, 1973;Popkin, 1978). Although using the Bible as a basis, the monogenist theory was imposed (God as the only creator) with the discovery of the New World, new polygenist approaches developed claiming the existence of different species of human beings, some of them pre-Adamite.…”

Section: The Encounter With the Natives Of The New World: Are They Or Are They Not Human Beings?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The taboo against contact with minorities: A folk‐anthropology approach to prejudices

Pérez

2021

J Theory Soc Behav

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In contrast to the classic theory of contact among groups to combat prejudice against the outgroup (Allport, 1954), we propose the theory of the taboo of contact according to which prejudice against minorities does not arise due to lack of contact, but precisely in order to avoid contact.We summarise a series of themata whereby in the West the majority's fears of losing the purity of their religious, ethnic, or racial identity have been ontologised in four minorities (Jews, gypsies, natives, and black people).The hypothesis is that the greater the proximity to -or danger of mixing with -those vilified minorities, the greater the taboo of contact will be. We conclude that the prejudice against minorities who are victims of current ethnic and racial discrimination is an hysteresis effect of folk-anthropology themata.

show abstract

Section: The Encounter With the Natives Of The New World: Are They Or Are They Not Human Beings?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The taboo against contact with minorities: A folk‐anthropology approach to prejudices

Pérez

2021

J Theory Soc Behav

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The polygenists thought that the so-called races of humans were in fact separate subspecies or species (Graves 2005a). The debate over polygeny dominated the study of humans in the first half of the nineteenth century (Popkin 1978). One of the most important groups of polygenists plied their trade in the period preceding the American Civil War (1830s to 1860s).…”

Section: Biological Determination In the Age Of Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, he contended that Earth’s fauna were divided into eight geographic zones, each with its own species of human. Agassiz’s theory implied separate creations, although he did not necessarily ascribe to the pre-Adamite races of Paracelsus (1493–1541), Bruno, and La Peyrère (Popkin 1978).…”

Section: Biological Determination In the Age Of Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

Great Is Their Sin

Graves¹

2015

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Scie

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The roots of biological determinism are ancient. Yet despite advances in biological science in the twentieth century, determinist thinking has not been eliminated. This article reviews the history of biological determinism, examining its varieties from its creationist beginnings to present-day biological thinking in the age of genomics. It elucidates the relationship between biological determinism and racialist understandings of human genetic variation. Of particular importance in this regard are the ongoing claims of racial medicine (a modern biological determinist variety) as well as resurgent attempts to classify humans into biological races utilizing genomic data and clustering algorithms (such as STRUCTURE). Finally it presents how the complexity of biological variation generated by genetic, epigenetic, environmental, and chance effects vitiates simplistic biological determinism.

show abstract

“…And for over two centuries, as no human‐like fossils had yet been discovered, the notion that “others” had once walked the earth passed out of the realm of empirical knowledge and into the domains of fantasy and speculation. By the nineteenth century even the staunchest advocates of polygenetic theory, such as biologist Louis Agassiz, “held to the unity of the human race, in the sense that all people had the moral and intellectual powers that made them human, all were in relation to the Deity, and all had the hope of eternal life” (Popkin 1978, 223). For both monogenists and polygenists, the various human races, whether as one family or as distinct species, lay on a single spectrum from savage to civilized.…”

Section: The Question Of Adam's Ancestorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human Uniqueness, the Other Hominids, and “Anthropocentrism of the Gaps” in the Religion and Science Dialogue

Moritz¹

2012

Zygon

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The concept of human uniqueness has long played a central role within key interpretations of the hominid fossil record and within numerous theological understandings of the imago Dei. More recently, the status of humans as evolutionarily unique has come under strong criticism owing to the discovery of certain nonhuman hominids who, as language and culture-bearing beings, lived as contemporaries with early anatomically modern humans. Nevertheless, many scholars, including those in the field of religion and science, continue to interpret the remains of these other hominids in light of empirically ungrounded implicit assumptions about human uniqueness, which the author calls "anthropocentrism of the gaps." This paper argues that "anthropocentrism of the gaps" is philosophically unwarranted and thus should not be assumed by scholars in religion and science when evaluating contemporary findings in paleoanthropology.For thousands of years, philosophers, theologians, poets, and scientists have pensively pondered the question "Are we alone in the universe?" Though a multitude of life forms enfold human beings on all sides, and myriads of other animal species even share in the societies of Homo sapiens, the disparity between them and us is still too great for us to see our own reflection in them. The company of animals is not sufficient to break the eerie silence of our solitude, and thus civilizations have posed the question of human isolation and human uniqueness. Though humans may not differ in kind from animals, the differences in degree are sufficient to make us matchless. Consequently, these scholars conclude, H. sapiens are still unique among the animals and still desolately alone. But this was not always the case. Once upon a time there were others who reflected our likeness as through a strange-looking glass that bends the original visage. These others were the terrestrial intelligent life forms called the hominids. While it is agreed that Joshua M. Moritz is managing editor of the journal Theology and Science and Research Associate at the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences

show abstract

Pre-adamism in 19th century American thought: “Speculative biology” and racism

Cited by 30 publications

References 0 publications

The taboo against contact with minorities: A folk‐anthropology approach to prejudices

The taboo against contact with minorities: A folk‐anthropology approach to prejudices

Great Is Their Sin

Human Uniqueness, the Other Hominids, and “Anthropocentrism of the Gaps” in the Religion and Science Dialogue

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About