Woman, Know Thyself: Producing and Using Phrenological Knowledge in 19th-Century America

Abstract

This article explores the production and consumption of phrenological knowledge for and by middle‐class women in the USA during the early and middle decades of the 19th century. At a time when science itself had few boundaries, women became readers, consumers, proselytizers and practitioners of this knowledge system, outside of a scientific academy. This paper argues that phrenological beliefs about sex differences enabled and encouraged women to be users. Phrenology allowed women to negotiate gender and by encouraging followers to ‘know thyself,’ phrenology blurred the lines of expertise, creating a fluid interplay between users and producers of knowledge. This article then shows how categories of women users–practitioners, consumers and feminists–implemented or rejected elements of phrenology as they sought to affirm or amend prescribed gender roles. As the industrial economy seemed to divide public and private, production and consumption, masculine and feminine, phrenology allowed women and men to stand within and between these binaries. At the same time, some women used phrenology to classify themselves and others in a socio‐natural hierarchy and further engrained scientific racism in American culture.

The quest for objectivity and measurements in phrenology’s “bumpy” history.

“…Additionally, some scholars have begun to look more closely at how phrenology was transmitted from Britain to America to other parts of the world (e.g., Poskett, 2019; Sakalauskaitė-Juodeikienė et al, 2017; Storey, 2020), as well as how it impacted the arts (e.g., Colbert, 1997; Finger & Eling, 2019, pp. 339–336) and reflected gender and racial beliefs (Anderson & Perrin, 2009; Bittel, 2013, 2019; Carson, 2007; Cornel, 2014). Yet how some phrenologists attempted to introduce measuring tools and utilize numbers to provide the doctrine with a stronger, more scientific foundation as the 18th century progressed has drawn surprisingly little attention.…”

Phrenology as neurodiversity

“…Carla Bittel, for instance, has noted that although phrenology could be adapted to 'women's rights causes', it also helped white, middle-class women to distinguish themselves from 'others' and to 'naturalize their own positive qualities' and 'further engrained scientific racism in American culture' . 101 Phrenology remained implicated in and hampered by the taxonomic hierarchies of its times. Yet the Fowlers' adherence to nonnormative theories of the brain and human behaviour, belief in the efficacy of education and the possibility of full social integration, and the commitment to broad access of their ideas also contributed to their appeal and legacy.…”

Phrenology and the average person, 1840–1940

“…Those who visited the phrenologist's consulting room for an examination left with a written delineation of character or a standardized chart that was filled in for them. These charts are an interesting but little-studied source for understanding phrenology and its popular appeal (Bittel, 2013(Bittel, , 2019Sokal, 2001). Each contained a list or table of phrenological organs with the client's score indicated on a scale ranging from 'small' to 'large'.…”