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'''Johann Fredrick Blumenbach''' (11 May 1752 – 22 January 1840) was a [[Germany|German]] [[physician]], [[Natural history|naturalist]], [[physiologist]] and [[anthropologist]], one of the first to explore the study of mankind as an aspect of [[natural history]], whose teachings in [[comparative anatomy]] were applied to classification of what he called human races, of which he determined five.
'''Johann Fredrick Blumenbach''' (11 May 1752 – 22 January 1840) was a [[Germany|German]] [[physician]], [[Natural history|naturalist]], [[physiologist]] and [[anthropologist]], one of the first to explore the study of mankind as an aspect of [[natural history]], whose teachings in [[comparative anatomy]] were applied to classification of what he called human races, of which he determined five.

Revision as of 15:21, 6 January 2012

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach
Born(1752-05-11)11 May 1752
Gotha
Died22 January 1840(1840-01-22) (aged 87)
NationalityGerman
Alma materUniversity of Jena
University of Göttingen
Known forcomparative anatomy
Scientific career
Fieldsphysiology
Doctoral advisorErnst Gottfried Baldinger
Signature
File:Jksdfhuih

Johann Fredrick Blumenbach (11 May 1752 – 22 January 1840) was a German physician, naturalist, physiologist and anthropologist, one of the first to explore the study of mankind as an aspect of natural history, whose teachings in comparative anatomy were applied to classification of what he called human races, of which he determined five.

Biography

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach was born at Gotha, studied medicine at Jena and then Göttingen, graduating from the latter 1775 with his M.D. thesis De generis humani varietate nativa (On the Natural Variety of Mankind, University of Göttingen, first published in 1775, re-issued with changings of the title-page in 1776), which is considered one of the most influential works in the development of subsequent concepts of "human races."[1][2] It contained the germ of the craniological researches to which so many of his subsequent inquiries were directed.[3]

He was appointed extraordinary professor of medicine and inspector of the museum of natural history in Göttingen in 1776 and ordinary professor in 1778.[2] He soon began to enrich the pages of the Medicinische Bibliothek, of which he was editor from 1780 to 1794, with various contributions on medicine, physiology, and anatomy. In physiology, he was of the school of Haller, and was in the habit of illustrating his theory by a careful comparison of the animal functions of man with those of other animals.[3]

His reputation was much extended by the publication of his Institutiones Physiologicae (1787), a condensed, well-arranged view of the animal functions, expounded without discussion of minute anatomical details. Between its first publication and 1821, it went through many editions in Germany, where it was the general textbook of the science. It was translated into English in America by Caldwell in 1798, and in London by Elliotson in 1807.[3]

He was perhaps still more extensively known by his Handbuch der vergleichenden Anatomie (Handbook of comparative anatomy), of which the German editions were numerous, from its appearance in 1805 to 1824. It was translated into English in 1809 by the surgeon Lawrence, and again, with the latest improvements and editions, by Coulson in 1827. This manual, though slighter than the subsequent works of Cuvier, Carus, and others, and not to be compared with such later expositions as that of Gegenbaur, was long esteemed for the accuracy of the author's own observations, and his just appreciation of the labors of his predecessors.[3]

Although the greatest part of Blumenbach's life was passed at Göttingen, in 1789 he visited Switzerland, and gave a curious medical topography of that country in the Bibliothek. He was in England in 1788 and 1792. In 1812 he was appointed secretary to the Royal Society of Sciences at Göttingen, in 1816 was appointed physician to the royal family in Hanover (Template:Lang-de) by the prince regent, in 1821 was made a knight-commander of the Guelphic Order, and in 1831 was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences at Paris. In celebration of his doctoral jubilee (1825) traveling scholarships were founded to assist talented young physicians and naturalists. In 1813, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. In 1835 he retired. Blumenbach died in Göttingen in 1840.[2][3]

Blumenbach's racial classification system

Blumenbach's five races.

Blumenbach divided the human species into five races in 1779, later founded on crania research (description of human skulls), and called them (1793/1795):

His classification of Mongolian race included all East Asians and some Central Asians. Blumenbach excluded peoples of Southeast Asian islands and Pacific Islanders from his definition in 1779, as he considered them to be part of the Malay race. He considered American Indians to be part of the American (Indigenous peoples) race. He did not think they were inferior to the Caucasian race, and were potentially good members of society. He included the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa in the Negro or black race.

Blumenbach argued that physical characteristics like skin color, cranial profile, etc., were depended on geography and nutrition and custom.

Blumenbach's work included his description of sixty human crania (skulls) published originally in fascicules as Decas craniorum (Göttingen, 1790–1828). This was a founding work for other scientists in the field of craniometry.

Further anatomical study led him to the conclusion that 'individual Africans differ as much, or even more, from other individual Africans as Europeans differ from Europeans'. Furthermore he concluded that Africans were not inferior to the rest of mankind 'concerning healthy faculties of understanding, excellent natural talents and mental capacities'.[4]

"Finally, I am of opinion that after all these numerous instances I have brought together of negroes of capacity, it would not be difficult to mention entire well-known provinces of Europe, from out of which you would not easily expect to obtain off-hand such good authors, poets, philosophers, and correspondents of the Paris Academy; and on the other hand, there is no so-called savage nation known under the sun which has so much distinguished itself by such examples of perfectibility and original capacity for scientific culture, and thereby attached itself so closely to the most civilized nations of the earth, as the Negro."[5]

These ideas were far less influential. His ideas were adopted by other researchers and encouraged scientific racism.[6] Blumenbach's work was used by many biologists and comparative anatomists in the nineteenth century who were interested in the origin of races: Wells, Lawrence, Prichard, Huxley and William Flower are good examples of his influence on human biology.

Regarding human origins, Blumenbach believed the first humans had originated in Asia, (see Asia hypothesis).[7]

Study of the platypus

Blumenbach was also one of the first scientists to study the anatomy of the platypus. He gave the scientific name Ornithorhynchus paradoxus to the animal not knowing that George Shaw had given it the name Platypus anatinus. However, Platypus had already been shown to be used for the scientific name for a genus of Ambrosia beetles so Blumenbach's scientific name for the genus was used.[8]

Study of natural history

Blumenbach wrote a manual of natural history entitled Handbuch der Naturgeschichte; 12 editions and some translations. It was published first in Göttingen by J. C. Dieterich in 1779/1780.

Study of the chimpanzee

In his dissertation Blumenbach mentioned a name Simia troglodytes with a short description for the Common Chimpanzee. This dissertation was printed and appeared in September 1775, but only for internal use in the University of Göttingen and not for providing a public record. The public print of his dissertation appeared in 1776.[9] Blumenbach knew that Linnaeus had already established a name Homo troglodytes for a badly known primate, and in 1779 he discussed this Linnean name and concluded correctly that Linnaeus had been dealing with two species, a human and an orangutan, none of them was a chimpanzee, and that by consequence the name Homo troglodytes could not be used. Blumenbach was one of the first scientists to understand the identities of the different species of primates, which were, excluding humans, orangutans and chimpanzees (gorillas were not known to Europeans at this time). In Opinion 1368 the ICZN Commission decided in 1985 that Blumenbach's view should be followed, and that his Simia troglodytes as published by Blumenbach in 1779 shall be the type species of the genus Pan and, since it was the oldest available name for the Common Chimpanzee, be used for this species.[10] However, the Commission did not know that Blumenbach had already mentioned this name in his dissertation. Following the rules of the ICZN Code the scientific name of one of the most well-known African animals, currently known as Pan troglodytes, must carry Blumenbach's name comined with the date 1776.[11]

Degeneration theory

Blumenbach and other monogenists such as Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon were believers in the "degeneration theory" of racial origins. Blumenbach claimed that Adam and Eve were Caucasian and that other races came about by degeneration from environmental factors such as the sun and poor dieting—for instance, he claimed Negroid pigmentation arose because of the result of the heat of the tropical sun, while the cold wind caused the tawny colour of the Eskimos, and the Chinese were fair skinned compared to the other Asian stocks because they kept mostly in towns protected from environmental factors.[12] He believed that the degeneration could be reversed if proper environmental control was taken and that all contemporary forms of man could revert to the original Caucasian race.[13]

Blumenbach did not consider his "degeneration theory" as racist and sharply criticized Christoph Meiners, an early practitioner of scientific racialism as well as Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring who concluded from autopsies that Africans were an inferior race.[14]

He also wrote three essays claiming non-white peoples are capable of excelling in arts and sciences in reaction against racialists of his time who believed they couldn't.[15]

See also

References

  • Schmidt-Wiederkehr P (1973). "[J. F. Blumenbach–Chr. Girtanner–C. F. Becker: precursors of tissue theory of warmth production]". Medizinische Monatsschrift (in German). 27 (3): 122–6. PMID 4579732. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  • McLaughlin P (1982). "Blumenbach und der Bildungstrieb. Zum Verhältnis von epigenetischer Embryologie und typologischem Artbegriff". Medizinhistorisches Journal. 17 (4): 357–72. PMID 11620622.
  • Wiesemann C (1990). "[Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752–1840)]". Der Pathologe (in German). 11 (6): 362–3. PMID 2290797. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  • Bhopal R (2007). "The beautiful skull and Blumenbach's errors: the birth of the scientific concept of race". BMJ. 335 (7633): 1308–9. doi:10.1136/bmj.39413.463958.80. PMC 2151154. PMID 18156242. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  • Klatt N (2008). "Klytia und die »schöne Georgianerin« – Eine Anmerkung zu Blumenbachs Rassentypologie". Kleine Beiträge zur Blumenbach-Forschung 1: 70-101. urn:nbn:de:101:1-2008112813

Notes

  1. ^ Biographical details are in Charles Coulston Gillispie, Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 1970:203f s.v. "Johann Friederich Blumenbach".
  2. ^ a b c public domain This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). Encyclopedia Americana. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. ^ a b c d e public domain This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Baynes, T. S., ed. (1878). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (9th ed.). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help) Cite error: The named reference "eb9" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  4. ^ Jack Hitt, "Mighty White of You: Racial Preferences Color America’s Oldest Skulls and Bones," Harper’s, July 2005, pp. 39–55
  5. ^ The anthropological treatises of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach
  6. ^ Fredrickson, George M. Racism: A Short History, p.57, Princeton University Press (2002), ISBN 0-691-00899-X
  7. ^ Human Evolution: a guide to the debates, Brian Regal, page 72 also see The Institutions of physiology, 1817, Blumenbach, John Elliotson
  8. ^ Platypus by Ann Moyal, pages 8 and 9
  9. ^ Blumenbach, J. F. 1776. De generis hvmani varietate nativa liber. Cvm figvris aeri incisis. – pp. [1], 1–100, [1], Tab. I–II [= 1–2]. Goettingae. (Vandenhoeck).
  10. ^ p. 303 in ICZN 1987. Official lists and indexes of names and works in zoology. – pp. 1–366. London. (The International Commission of Zoological Nomenclature).
  11. ^ http://www.iczn.org/iczn/index.jsp ICZN Code Art. 8.1.1
  12. ^ Marvin Harris, The rise of anthropological theory: a history of theories of culture, 2001, p. 84
  13. ^ Marvin Harris, The rise of anthropological theory: a history of theories of culture, 2001, p. 84
  14. ^ Über die natürlichen Verschiedenheiten im Menschengeschlechte, 1798, pp. 204–224
  15. ^ Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze, Race and the enlightenment: a reader, 1997, p. 79
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