Temporal_Paradigm

Presentation Paper – The Temporal Paradigm and Family Tree of Man In chapter 4, “Classification”, Spurr explains Foucault’s notion of Discourse in the following quote: “A statement can lay claim to truth, Foucault says, only by obeying a discursive police. Within the realm of discourse, classification performs this policing function, assigning positions, regulating groups, and enforcing boundaries.” (Spurr 63) This quote as used by Spurr as well as Foucault’s notion of the “squared and spatialized” development of natural history is can easily be seen in visual tables used by social evolutionists and racial scientists during the period of Empire. There are various theories regarding how different races came to be, using the paper written by John Haller Jr., we are going to look at the Monogenists and the differing sections Polygenistis with their theories of belief, the awareness of variations in the vast spectrum of the genus homo have been questioned; including the term “races” and whether they actually came from one primitive being. The first two groups of monogenists were the Adamites and the Rational monogenists who had differing theories, but still the same general conclusion. The Adamites believed in the biblical story of Adam and Eve, along with the belief that races came about from those who landed on Mt. Ararat in Turkey; where Noah's Ark is thought to have landed. They have no belief in science only that of faith, however the Rational monogenists had a mixed belief; faith in the bible and some aspect in science. Since the Earth was older than the bible, man had to have been created prior to Adam and Eve there had to be another way of creation. The story doesn't go into much detail but their belief focused on creation of varation during the time of travellors like Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and Babur (Mughal emperor), as they passed through the Asian mountain system. Since they passed through at different times and for different lengths of time, the climate conditions caused variation in appearance. (Haller;1319-1320) According to Anne McClintock, “To meet the scientific standards set by the natural historians and empiricists of the eighteenth century, a visual paradigm was needed to display evolutionary progress as a measurable spectacle.” (McClintock 37) the result of this need for visual proof of the origin of man, led to such creations as the Family Tree of Man, and Mantegazza’s Morphological Tree of the Human Races. It is important to note that these sorts of images served as forms of scientific evidence for the inferiority of the colonized races, and for the claims of superiority of the white race. Some have decided that “subspecies; those who are not technically linked to Europeans, should be subjected to their superiors; those of European decent” (Haller;1319). The data used for these creations often came from early anthropologists that went traveled to foreign lands and collected various sorts of information while abroad. In relating this to Foucault’s idea of discourse, the use of these pseudo-sciences were used to debate the evolutionary development of colonized people in relation to that of Europe which saw itself at the top of the evolutionary scale. The act of analyzing others on an evolutionary scale is what Spurr refers to as the Temporal Paradigm and what McClintock breaks down even more specifically as Panoptical Time (36) and Anachronistic Space (40). Panoptical Time is the use of visual aids to show the racial degeneration while holding the white European as the standard for evolution (37), while Anachronistic Space referred to the actual difference in time between Europe and colonized places that was seen as fixed and permanent. To be clearer, colonized people were not just seen as behind Europeans in evolutionary progress but that they were stuck and fixed in the past, and to go to colonized lands, was to go literally into the past itself (40). These two concepts fit perfectly with Johannes Fabian’s notion of the Temporal Paradigm which was ever so prevalent in the discourse of Natural History at the time of Empire. Interestingly, Spurr goes on to mention that notion of the Temporal Paradigm (which we can include with the concepts of Anne McClintock) had further development in the discourses of evolution in Europe especially in attempting to explain the “innate inferiority” of the other races. The idea that outside or the visual (such as that which was shown as degeneration in visual spectacles) could be markers of the innate inferiority of non-european peoples became prevalent, especially by the popular scientists at the time such as Darwin. This can be seen clearly in Spurr’s reference to Charles Darwin’s Journal of Researches where he refers to the Fuegans (64). Now if we look at the polygenists and their various sections of belief, first their was the main statement that the concept of Adam and Eve for that of Jewish based, “this section believed that men and animals were created essentially where they were found; meaning multiple creation” (Haller;1321). Some of this section laid ground work for Darwin's theories, but they never found reason to believe in single stem of evolution. Meaning that some stem of evolution was coming into play, but it wouldn't have the boost it needed until Darwin was around. Another section of polygenists believed that races of men resulted in modification of different species of apes. However, their belief was not that of evolution of one species to another, but that certain apes became different races, such as the American came from the “broad-nosed Simian of the New World and that the African came from those left behind; like the orangutan” (Huxley qtd. in Haller;1322). So even though they were sort of on the right track of theory, they still had a way to discriminate against other non white races. Theodor Waitz wrote “Introduction to Anthropology” in 1863, some of his theories challenged the polygenists belief that “one trace of Negro blood made you less intelligent and morally inept, compared to a pure white” (Waitz;178). Also he argued their belief that a mulatto would be more gifted if he/she had European blood in them, compared to that of other mulatto mixes. This belief has also been used in Spurr's writings when discussing some advanced Arab communities; the African people of these communities not only benefited from the political and social influences of Islam, but also they have Aryan blood in them. Therefore it is believed that they claim to be superior over aboriginal blacks, however this same mixture is considered to be detrimental to the Egyptian Assyrian civilization (Spurr; 68). This statement demonstrates that not only is superiority influential between Europeans and the rest of the races, but also within these races competing among one another. As we take another look at the mixing of races, one may use Waitz's writings on the explanation of what happens when races continue to mix, here are examples; an American Indian and a Zambo woman, in the second generation, produce a mongrel resembling the pure Indian; the white with a Mestizo woman, assumes the type of a white third generation; in four generations Mulattoes may become white, in five generations they may become black. Therefore since some generations resemble that of their grandparents and great grandparents, one mix actually may be considered white in the U.S, but at the same time a child may have Negro in their past and therefore appear as black (179). Either way this does show mixing and remixing of generations of offspring, who have not produced sterile children and variations in race may occur without distinct appearance. Plus these differences did not come about just because of their environmental circumstances as believed by monogenists. After reviewing these different theories, a couple things struck me as most peculiar and demeaning; first that they felt that a Negro could not be modified and therefore Jefferson's statement “men born and created equal” would not be carried out, man could be born equal but by far would not remain equal, which is why the Negro would always remain a slave. Second that those who mixed among the races and produced offspring would more likely be sterile, especially if the first mix of offspring mixed with one another their “product” would definitely be sterile; so as not to create another race because they would not be capable of passing down their individual characteristics (Haller; 1320). As to these other races they mixed with, the beliefs that these men were offspring of spontaneous generation of a slow transformation of apes, which to a certain extend has been proven, but they extended this theory to explain that races only developed from a single family and their color, body form and intelligence varied due to environment. That there were no pure races, some just had similarities because of close breeding in the isolated regions. I just don't understand these theories, they know that Europeans crossed with almost every known race during their conquests around the world, but they felt that the mixed race offspring was that comparable to street dogs. So if they wanted to look so far down upon these races, why did they copulate with them to begin with' One reason that has been noted in Imperial Leather, is basic curiosity; exploration in a sense, to see the differences among female anatomy. I say it this way because of the study done on the Hottentot Venus; the visibility of her genitalia as she was on display around the world. Even though Hottentot Venus is quite well known, this exploitation was not uncommon and unfortunately gave “whites” the belief that they had the right to “explore” as they wanted. This paper has had a lot of theories and opinions of many as to how races came about, along with who is better than the other, however one must look past the confusions and look to the positives of societies now. We may not be perfect and we certainly may still have our own opinions, however there is not a constant belief that European is at the top of the totem pole and the rest just fall in line believing in constant superiority. Bibliography Haller, John S.,Jr. . 1970. "The Species Problem: Nineteenth-Century Concepts of Racial Inferiority in the Origin of Man Controversy." American Anthropologist 72 (6):1319-1329 Spurr, David. 1993. “The Rhetoric of Empire: Colonial Discourse in Journalism, Travel Writing and Imperial Administration.” Duke University Press Waitz, Theodor. 1863. “Introduction to Anthropology” accessed on 2/28/2010 books.google.com/books'id=jzgGAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v =onepage&q=&f=false