[#NeuroRacism | Before Neuroscience 🧵]
To start the story of racism in neuroscience, we'll have to go back even before neuroscience existed, to the age of Enlightenment.
This is when the scientists tried, for the first time, to classify humans.
To start the story of racism in neuroscience, we'll have to go back even before neuroscience existed, to the age of Enlightenment.
This is when the scientists tried, for the first time, to classify humans.
As it was in vogue at the time to try to classify and rationalize everything, one of the key debates was between monogenism and polygenism.
The question was: do all races come from one ancestor or did we all come from different origins?
You can imagine how this is gonna go...
The question was: do all races come from one ancestor or did we all come from different origins?
You can imagine how this is gonna go...
We also didn't distinguish between race and species at the time, we'd just barely coined those terms.
So when different races were discussed, there was an implication of types and sub-types of humans. In that sense, being white was the norm by which the other races deviated.
So when different races were discussed, there was an implication of types and sub-types of humans. In that sense, being white was the norm by which the other races deviated.
François Bernier, thought to be among the first ones doing this polygenic classification, divided humanity into:
1) Europeans, Middle-Easterns, Indians, and Americans
2) Sub-Saharan Africans
3) East- and Northeast Asians
4) The Sámi people
... yeah ... but wait there’s more 🙄
1) Europeans, Middle-Easterns, Indians, and Americans
2) Sub-Saharan Africans
3) East- and Northeast Asians
4) The Sámi people
... yeah ... but wait there’s more 🙄
The contrarian argument was that we all share ancestors. A theory which is, indeed, what we have the most evidence for today.
Back then, however, this was tainted by the notion that we derived from the OG whites: Adam and Eve, and any deviation from them was to be condemned.
Back then, however, this was tainted by the notion that we derived from the OG whites: Adam and Eve, and any deviation from them was to be condemned.
And it is in the middle of all of this that neuroscience is born.
Debates about the mind always existed, but it's in the 1700s that scientists start giving the brain more attention.
Next, we'll talk phrenology, but first: what are your thoughts on Bernier's classification?
Debates about the mind always existed, but it's in the 1700s that scientists start giving the brain more attention.
Next, we'll talk phrenology, but first: what are your thoughts on Bernier's classification?
