The polygenist race theory of Samuel George Morton

A theory that served to justify the inequality and domination of many ethnic groups.

Since its beginnings, modern science has formulated different theories about the origin of human beings, as well as various explanations about what makes us different from one another. With the natural science paradigm dominating the production of scientific knowledge in the United States and Europe in the mid-19th century, these explanations were strongly focused on finding genetically and biologically predetermined differences within the same species.

This was the origin of one of the theoretical models that until recently dominated much of scientific knowledge and had important repercussions in different spheres of social life: the polygenetic 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.

What does the polygenic race theory postulate?

The polygenetic theory of races, also known as polygenism, postulates that since our origins, human beings have been genetically differentiated into distinct races (biologically determined subdivisions). (biologically determined subdivisions within our species).

These subdivisions would have been created separately, so that each one would have fixed differences since its origin. In this sense, this is a theory opposed to monogenismwhich postulates a single origin or race for the human species.

The origins of polygenism and intellectual differences

The leading 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, later called "races, the human genus could be divided into subspecies, which were later called "races", and which would have constituted humans since the beginning of the human race..

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

Thus, along with the rise of phrenology as an explanation of personality, Morton argued that skull size could indicate different types or levels of intelligence for each race. different types or levels of intelligence for each race. He studied the skulls of different people around the world, including Native Americans, Africans and Caucasian whites.

From monogenism to polygenist theory.

After analyzing these bone structures, Morton concluded that blacks and whites were already different from their origins, Morton concluded that blacks and whites were already different from their origins, more than three centuries before these theories.more than three centuries before these theories. This implied a theory contrary to the one accepted at the time, which lay between biologicism and Christianity, a theory based on the fact 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 time.

Morton, still reluctant to contradict this account, but later supported by other scientists of the time such as the surgeon Josiah C. Nott and the Egyptologist George Gliddon, came to the conclusion that there were racial differences intrinsic to human biology, and that these differences had been present since its origins. The latter was called polygenism or polygenetic race theory.

Samuel G. Morton and Scientific Racism

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

This theory had its heyday a few years before the Civil War, or American Civil War, which lasted from 1861 to 1865, and which broke out partly 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 Caucasian whites and the lowest by blacks, was quickly used by those justifying and justifying the differences by race, was quickly used by those who justified and defended slavery..

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

It is for this reason that Morton and his theories are recognized as the beginnings of scientific racism, which consists in using scientific theories to legitimize racist practices of discrimination.This also includes the fact that scientific theories and research themselves are often marked by significant racial biases, as was the case with the postulates of Samuel G. Morton and other physicians of the time.

In other words, polygenic race theory is evidence of the two processes that make up scientific racism. On the one hand, it exemplifies how scientific research can be easily instrumentalized to legitimize and reproduce stereotypes and conditions of inequality, discrimination or violence. and reproduce stereotypes and conditions of inequality, discrimination or violence against minorities, in this case racialized minorities. towards minorities, in this case racialized minorities. On the other hand, it is an example of how scientific production is not necessarily neutral, but can hide racist biases that, by the same token, make it easily instrumentalized.

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 constantly expanding and questioning both its paradigms and its criteria of validity and reliability, Morton's theories are currently discredited. 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 has no 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 phenotypical and/or cultural characteristics, are attributed certain socially devalued abilities or values.

Bibliographical references:

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