Monogenism And Polygenism

The explanation of human variation based on the ideology of separate human origins was first proposed in 1520 by Paracelsus and in 1655 through the works of Issac de Peyere (Banton, 2010). However Polygenism later resurfaced during The Enlightenment in 1777 in the “Sketches of the History of Man” by Lord Kames and was supported in the last 20 years of the 18th century by European historians and ethnographers including Edward Long and Christoph Meiners (Stocking, 1992). During The Enlightenment, the systemisation of race concepts spurred great debate between advocates of monogenism and polygenism. Authors like Stocking (1992) suggest that although Polygenism had its footings in the 18th centaury its prevalence was enhanced by the middle of the

By 1859 polygenism was the dominant thinking of anthropologists and embodied the ultimate dehumanising scientific theory as it effectively denied the humanity of non-white races. Although prominent thinkers including Buffon, Kant and Blumenbach continued to advocate for monogenism late into the 18th century in the 19th century polygenists triumphed over monogenists. Authors like Wolpoff and Caspari (1997) suggest that internal conflicts over slavery created the social and political atmosphere in which polygenism and the idea of separate descendants of race was warmly received in America and parts of Europe. Polygenism assisted in dehumanizing non-white races to validate the exploitation and justify the continued practice of slavery. Particularly due to the socio-cultural and political implications it had on the perpetuating the dominance over African slaves, some authors suggest that the application of polygenist ideology of was “clearly political” in places like America (Stocking, 1992; Wolpoff and Caspari, 1997. Pg 78). A well accepted view at the time was the concept of the “Great Chain of Being”, intrinsic to the European classification of nature in the pre-Darwinian period it was believed to be a natural law ranking

The Romantic Era brought about the intellectual reorientation in response to The Enlightenment of the 18th century. Whereby romantics were “repelled by the social consequences of capitalist society and moved by the misery caused by industrialisation” during the industrial revolution (Malik, 1996. Pg 74). The Romantic Era represented a shift in the study of nature from objective to the subjective, which developed in opposition to the scientific rationalisation of nature during The