Race Relationships: Collegiality and Demarcation in Physical Anthropology

Abstract

In 1962, anthropologist Carleton Coon argued in The Origin of Races that some human races had evolved further than others. Among his most vocal critics were geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky and anthropologist Ashley Montagu, each of whom had known Coon for decades. I use this episode, and the long relationships between scientists that preceded it, to argue that scientific research on race was intertwined not only with political projects to conserve or reform race relations, but also with the relationships scientists shared as colleagues. Demarcation between science and pseudoscience, between legitimate research and scientific racism, involved emotional as well as intellectual labor.

Disciplines in the Scientonomic Ontology

“…Montagu authored a statement rejecting the concept of race, which was adopted by UNESCO in 1950 (Caspari, 2003). The statement failed to establish a scientific consensus because most scientists continued to believe race was a meaningful category, while rejecting its exploitation by racists (Collopy, 2015).…”

“…Reaction against Coon's book was harsh. Dobzhansky pointed out that Coon's parallel evolution to the "sapiens threshold" required a "mystical inner drive" to craft each of the five separate groups into Homo sapiens and was therefore incompatible with neo-Darwinian evolution (Collopy, 2015;Dobzhansky (undated)). Washburn, then president of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), delivered a scathing address denouncing the book at the AAA's annual meeting in 1962.…”

Richard Lewontin and the Argument from Ethos

“…Ten years previously Dobzhansky had taken a stance against the physical anthropologist Carleton Coon's The Origin of Races not unlike Lewontin's view of Jensen. It and its author deserved only to be discredited (Collopy 2015;Jackson and Depew, 2017). I can find no evidence that Lewontin reminded Dobzhansky of this fact, but I do find evidence that he saw Dobzhansky's dealings with the BGA as a retreat from his own principles.…”

Patrons of the Human Experience

“…(Coon seemed to support polygenism, the old idea that some groups had evolved "earlier" than others.) Those theories were being used by white supremacists to support segregation in the South (Jackson 2005:157-162;Collopy 2015). When Dobzhansky attacked Coon, Coon wrote to Osmundsen to complain-placing her in the odd position of being asked to stand up for him when he was espousing ideas that many anthropologists viewed as racist.…”

“…She was also in touch with Dobzhansky in this debate. These controversies ultimately led Coon to be deposed from the AAPA (Collopy 2015).…”