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Johann Friedrich Blumenbach: Race and Natural History, 1750–1850 book cover

1st Edition

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach Race and Natural History, 1750–1850

Edited By Nicolaas Rupke, Gerhard Lauer Copyright 2019
280 Pages
by Routledge

280 Pages
by Routledge

280 Pages
by Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
The major significance of the German naturalist-physician Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752–1840) as a topic of historical study is the fact that he was one of the first anthropologists to investigate humankind as part of natural history. Moreover, Blumenbach was, and continues to be, a central figure in debates about race and racism. How exactly did Blumenbach define race and races? What... Read more



List of figures and tables;



Notes on Contributors;



Preface;



Acknowledgements;



Part I: Blumenbach Studies



1. A Brief history of Blumenbach representation  (Nicolaas Rupke and Gerhard Lauer)



2. Johann Friedrich Blumenbach-online (Gerhard Lauer, Wolfgang Böker and Heiko Weber);



Part II: Defining Human Races



3. Buffon, Blumenbach, Herder, Lichtenberg, and the origins of modern anthropology (Carl Niekerk)



4. Climate change and creolization in French natural history, 1750–1795. (Emma Spary).



5. Blumenbach’s collection of human skulls (Wolfgang Böker)



6. Blumenbach’s theory of human races and the natural unity of humankind (Thomas Junker)



7. A defence of human rights: Blumenbach on albinism (Renato Mazzolini);



Part III: Racism, anti-racism, and Eurocentricity



8. Blumenbach’s race science in the light of Christian supersessionism (Terence Keel)



9. The beautiful skulls of Schiller and the Georgian girl: quantitative and aesthetic scaling of the races, 1750–1850 (Robert J. Richards)



10. Ethnographic exploration in the Blumenbachian tradition (Peter Hanns Reill)



11. The rise of paleontology and the historicization of nature: Blumenbach and Deluc (John H. Zammito)



12. The origins of scientific racism and Huxley’s Rule (Nicolaas Rupke); 



Appendix: Biographical sketch;



Index



 

Biography

Nicolaas Rupke is Professor Emeritus of the History of Science at the University of Göttingen, Germany, and Rupert H. Johnson Jr. Professor at Washington and Lee University, USA.





Gerhard Lauer is Professor of Digital Humanities at the University of Basel, Switzerland, and the current director of the Blumenbach – Online project.

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