Diversity of the Human Race/Comparative Worth of Races

Alfred Russel Wallace

- Two parties of argument; one believes that mankind is homogenous and that variations of physical attributes of man have created ‘races’, the other believes in the permanence of these characteristics, the original diversity of man

- The effects of natural selection on man vs. animals: mental weakness takes precedent over physical weakness

- Natural selection affects variations in man’s mental capacities now, instead of physical ones

- Nature still affects man physically in one factor- the color of the skin

- Those civilizations who prospered in harsher climates “hardened” the mind of the inhabitants and thus advanced them further than other civilizations of the world

- Such harsher climates were those of temperate weather and inclement seasons: North-South relationship

- Prediction of the origins of races of man, naturally adapting, gregarious species who migrated to different environments; mental development was accelerated during this time from some unknown cause

Francis Galton

- Sets up comparisons between the Negro and Anglo-Saxon race

- Ranking of the cognitive abilities of different races: A-G are above the mean, a-g are below the mean, and X and x for the extremes

- Example of the white traveler, civilized but an average person, meeting the black tribal chief, raised to be a leader: records never show that the white is inferior to the black- the smartest black compares to an average white

- Greeks are the most valuable race in the history of man, Australians are the lowest