Social Anthropology in Economic Literature at the End of the 19^th Century: Eugenic and Racial Explanations of Inequality

Abstract

At the end of the 19 th century, Georges Vacher de Lapouge and Otto Ammon founded a school of thought denominated "social anthropology" or "anthropo-sociology," aimed at placing racism on a scientific basis. Their intent was to create a new discipline into which the themes of biological heredity, natural selection, social stratification, and political organization were to converge. This paper intends to demonstrate the wide resonance that anthroposociology had in the economic literature, analyzing the thought of authors such as Carlos C. Closson, Vilfredo Pareto, and Thorstein Veblen. A particular focus will be on the racial and eugenic arguments used as explanation of social and economic inequality.Social anthropology is today considered a flourishing branch of human knowledge, promoted all over the world by specialist journals and scientific institutions. 1 However, the social anthropology dealt with in these pages has little to do with this reality. At present his research activity mainly deals with the problem of inequality and, in particular, the "Pareto law." He would like to thank the anonymous readers of AJES and Laurence Moss for their helpful comments. He is extremely grateful to Francesco Asso, Fabrizio Bientinesi, Luca Fiorito, and Tiziana Foresti for their bibliographical support. None of them are, of course, responsible for any errors.

Corrado Gini's economic anthropology

“…Gini reshaped this age-old idea via a scientific apparatus, demographical and biological (the germinal plasma), and also via a concern with degeneration and decline – a Europe-wide fear, tackled by a host of writers from Nordau to Spengler. Pareto’s theory of the circulation of elites was probably a major influence (Maccabelli, 2008). The general inspiration, however, came from Italian nationalism, to which the nexus between population growth and Italy’s expansionism was commonplace.…”

Schumpeter’s Early Vision of Social Dynamics and His Ideology

“…Due to the differences in innate characteristics that result in the rise and fall of master craftsmen, industrial development increases income inequality. He insisted on the necessity of offering free primary education to improve moral standards and es-4) According to Maccabelli (2008), in the fields of economics, Vilfredo Pareto and Thorstein Veblen were among those who accepted the ideas of this school of thought. However, Pareto distanced himself from the racist implications of these theories, and even criticized them on the grounds that they relied on weak inferences (Maccabelli 2008, 501).…”

“…Ripley (1867Ripley ( -1941, who was an anthropologist and economist. It is interesting that Ripley criticized Ammonʼs work for misusing the term "race" (Maccabelli 2008). In the same paragraph, Schumpeter recognizes the worth of using ethnological implications, commenting: "if these topics would be adequately treated, then I would still, in the interest of clarity, stand up for not having one throw it together with the pure theory of economy, but apart from that, to gladly accept each effort.…”