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On the Races of Man
In the first chapters of the book, Darwin
argued that there is no fundamental gap
between humans and other animals in
intellectual and moral faculties as well as
…
anatomy. Retreating from his egalitarian
ideas of the 1830s, he ranked life on a
hierarchic scale which he extended to
human races on the basis of
anthropology published since 1860:
human prehistory outlined by John
Lubbock and Edward Burnett Tylor
combined archaeology and studies of
modern indigenous peoples to show
progressive evolution from Stone Age to
steam age; the human mind as the same
in all cultures but with modern "primitive"
peoples giving insight into prehistoric
ways of life. Darwin did not support their
view that progress was inevitable, but he
shared their belief in human unity and
held the common attitude that male
European liberalism and civilisation had
progressed further in morality and
intellect than "savage" peoples.
[9][10]
He attributed the "great break in the
organic chain between man and his
nearest allies" to extinction, and as
spreading civilisation wiped out wildlife
and native human cultures, the gap would
widen to somewhere "between man in a
more civilised state, as we may hope,
than the Caucasian, and some ape as
low as a baboon, instead of as at present
between the negro or Australian and the
gorilla." While there "can be no doubt that
the difference between the mind of the
lowest man and that of the highest
animal is immense", the "difference in
mind between man and the higher
animals, great as it is, is certainly one of
degree and not of kind."
[11][12]
At the
same time, all human races had many
mental similarities, and early artefacts
showing shared culture were evidence of
evolution through common descent from
an ancestral species which was likely to
have been fully human.
[13][14]
Introducing chapter seven ("On the Races
of Man"), Darwin wrote "It is not my
intention here to describe the several so-
called races of men; but to inquire what
is the value of the differences between
them under a classificatory point of view,
and how they have originated."
[15]
In
answering the question of whether the
races should rank as varieties of the
same species or count as different
species, Darwin discussed arguments
which could support the idea that human
races were distinct species.
[16][17]
This
included the geographical distribution of
mammal groups which was correlated
with the distribution of human races,
[18]
and the finding of Henry Denny that
different species of lice affected
different races differently.
[19]
Darwin then
presented the stronger evidence that
human races are all the same species,
noting that when races mixed together,
they intercrossed beyond the "usual test
of specific distinctness"
[20]
and that
characteristics identifying races were
highly variable.
[21]
He put great weight on
the point that races graduate into each
other, writing "But the most weighty of all
the arguments against treating the races
of man as distinct species, is that they
graduate into each other, independently in
many cases, as far as we can judge, of
their having intercrossed",
[22]
and
concluded that the stronger evidence
was that they were not different
species.
[23]
This conclusion on human unity was
supported by monogenism, including
John Bachman's evidence that
intercrossed human races were fully
fertile. Proponents of polygenism
opposed unity, but the gradual transition
from one race to another confused them
when they tried to decide how many
human races should count as species:
Louis Agassiz said eight, but Morton said
twenty-two.
[24][22]
Darwin commented
that the "question whether mankind
consists of one or several species has of
late years been much agitated by
anthropologists, who are divided into two
schools of monogenists and
polygenists." The latter had to "look at
species either as separate creations or
as in some manner distinct entities" but
those accepting evolution "will feel no
doubt that all the races of man are
descended from a single primitive stock".
Although races differed considerably,
they also shared so many features "that
it is extremely improbable that they
should have been independently acquired
by aboriginally distinct species or races."
He drew on his memories of Jemmy
Button and John Edmonstone to
emphasise "the numerous points of
mental similarity between the most
distinct races of man. The American
aborigines, Negroes and Europeans differ
as much from each other in mind as any
three races that can be named; yet I was
incessantly struck, whilst living with the
Fuegians on board the Beagle, with the
many little traits of character, shewing
how similar their minds were to ours; and
so it was with a full-blooded negro with
whom I happened once to be
intimate."
[25][26]
Darwin concluded that
"...when the principles of evolution are
generally accepted, as they surely will be
before long, the dispute between the
monogenists and the polygenists will die
a silent and unobserved death."
[27][28]
Darwin rejected both the idea that races
had been separately created, and the
concept that races had evolved in parallel
from separate ancestral species of
apes.
[29]
He reviewed possible
explanations of divergence into racial
differences such as adaptations to
different climates and habitats, but found
inadequate evidence to support them,
and proposed that the most likely cause
was sexual selection,
[30]
a subject to
which he devoted the greater part of the
book to, as described in the following
section.
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