The Polygenist Theory of Races by Samuel George Morton

Since its inception, modern science has formulated different theories about the origin of human beings, as well as several explanations about what makes us different from one another. With the paradigm of natural sciences that dominated the production of scientific knowledge in the United States and Europe in the middle of the century XIX, these explanations were strongly focused on finding genetic and biologically predetermined differences within the same species.

This is how one of the theoretical models was generated that until recently dominated much of scientific knowledge and that had important repercussions in different spheres of social life: the polygenist theory of races. In this article we will see what this theory is about and what have been some of its consequences in everyday life.

• Related article: "Phrenology: measuring the skull to study the mind"

What does the polygenic theory of races postulate?

The polygenistic theory of races, also known as polygenism, He postulates that from our origins, human beings are genetically differentiated into different races

(Biologically determined subdivisions within our own species).

These subdivisions would have been created separately, with which, each one would have fixed differences from its origin. In this sense, it is a theory opposed to monogenism, which postulates an origin or a unique race for the human species.

The origins of polygenism and intellectual differences

The greatest exponent of polygenism was the American physician Samuel George Morton (1799-1851), who postulated that, as was the case with the animal kingdom, the human race could be divided into subspecies which were later called "races".

These races would have constituted humans from their origin, and being a biologically pre-established differential condition, also the study of the anatomical characteristics of each subspecies could account for other intrinsic characteristics, for example, the capacities intellectuals.

Thus, along with the rise of phrenology as an explanation of personality, Morton argued that the size of the skull could indicate types or levels of intelligence different for each race. He studied skulls of different people around the world, among whom were North American, African and white Caucasian peoples.

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From monogenism to polygenic theory

After having analyzed these bone structures, Morton concluded that blacks and whites were already different from their origins, more than three centuries before these theories. This supposed a theory contrary to the one accepted at that time, and that lay between biology and Christianity, a theory based on that the entire human species had derived from the same point: the sons of Noah who, according to the biblical account, had arrived only a thousand years before this epoch.

Morton, still resistant to contradicting this account, but later supported by other scientists of the time such as the surgeon Josiah C. Nott and the Egyptologist George Gliddon, concluded that there were racial differences intrinsic to human biology, with which, these differences were found from their origins. The latter was called polygenism or polygenist theory of races.

Samuel G. Morton and scientific racism

After stating that each race had a different origin, Morton postulated that intellectual abilities followed descending order and differentiated according to the species in question. Thus, he placed Caucasian whites at the highest rung of the hierarchy, and blacks at the lowest, including other groups in the middle.

This theory had its peak a few years before the Civil War, or Civil War, began. which lasted from 1861 to 1865, and which erupted in part as a result of the history of slavery in that country. The theory of intellectual differences by race, where the highest link is occupied by white Caucasians and the lowest is occupied by blacks, was quickly used by those who justified and defended slavery.

The results of his research not only alluded to intellectual differences. They also made reference to aesthetic characteristics and personality traits, which are more highly valued in Caucasian whites than in other groups. The latter impacted both the beginnings of the Civil War and the social imaginary of racial superiority / inferiority itself. It also had an impact on subsequent scientific research, and on policies for access to different spaces of public life.

This is why Morton and his theories are recognized as the beginnings of scientific racism, which consists of use scientific theories to legitimize racist discriminatory practices; which also includes the fact that scientific theories and research themselves are often traversed by significant racial biases; just as it happened with the postulates of Samuel G. Morton and other doctors of the time.

In other words, the polygenic theory of races is proof of the two processes that make up scientific racism. On the one hand, he exemplifies how scientific investigations can easily be instrumentalized to legitimize and reproduce stereotypes and conditions of inequality, discrimination or violence towards minorities, in this case racialized. And on the other hand, they are an example of how scientific production is not necessarily neutral, but can hide racist biases that, therefore, make it easily instrumentalizable.

From the concept of "race" to that of "racialized groups"

As a consequence of the above, and also as a result of the fact that science has been expanding and questioning constantly both his paradigms and his criteria of validity and reliability, Morton's theories are currently you discredit. Today the scientific community agrees that it is not possible to scientifically sustain the concept of "race".

Genetics itself has rejected this possibility. Since the beginning of this century, research has shown that the concept of race lacks a genetic basis, and therefore its scientific basis has been denied.

In any case, it is more convenient to speak of racialized groups, since although races do not exist, what does exist is a constant process of racialization; which consists of legitimizing the structural and daily conditions of inequality towards groups that, due to their phenotypic and / or cultural characteristics, certain skills or values ​​are socially attributed to them devalued.

Bibliographic references:

• Globo Azul (2018, August 12). Scientific Racism. [Video]. Recovered from https://www.youtube.com/watch? v = yaO2YVJqfj4.
• Wade, P, Smedley, A and Takezawa, Y. (2018). Race. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved August 23, 2018. Available at Globo Azul (2018, August 12). Scientific Racism. [Video]. Recovered from https://www.youtube.com/watch? v = yaO2YVJqfj4.
• Herce, R. (2014). Monogenism and polygenism. Status Quaestionis, Scripta Theologica, 46: 105-120.
• Sánchez, J.M (2008). Human biology as an ideology. Journal of Theory, History and Foundations of Science, 23 (1): 107-124.