Skeptick writes:
I must have misundertood the OoS and DoM. Please tell me, what "difference" did Darwin imply between "Europeans", "savages", "lowest savages", and "Negroes"?
You most certainly must have. The differences Darwin implied were primarily cultural; he also used the term "uncivilised" (ref: OoS chapter 1). He did not regard human races as being different stages of evolution; but regarded them as representing the diversity of the human species.
Darwin shared the Victorian notion that European (and especially English) civilisation was a pinnacle of cultural achievement; but on the other hand Darwin did not conceive of this as an evolved phenomenon. He used the various "so-called races" (Darwin's own wording) as illustrations of what humans may achieve. He was also bitterly opposed to slavery or to notions that one race had rights over another, and in fact was very much aligned with the forces working against racism in Victorian society. He did not advocate the notion that the "savage" races or "negroes" were any closer to our non-human ancestors, or that they were in any way less human. Just less civilised.
In
Origin, Darwin had almost nothing to say on the evolution of humanity. Where he speaks of "savages", it is mainly for the sake of showing what different humans can do in breeding domesticated animals. The examples of evolution in Origin are all non-human.
There is an exception in the preface, where Darwin refers to a paper by a Dr Wells from 1813, which anticipates some ideas of natural selection, and applies them to humans. But in the example given, negros are cited as the end result of selection for particular environmental circumstances; not as a more primitive progenitor.
The "Descent of Man" is of course more relevant to humanity; but here too we find a combination of scientific insight, along with Darwin's personal convictions on the rights and status of all humans. Modern evolutionary biology is a powerful force against racism, in that it emphasizes just how closely related all of humanity is, and that the various "so-called races" are not evolutionary stages in the origin of humanity at all. In this, as in much else, Darwin anticipates the position of modern biology.
Chapter 7 is "On the Races of Man". Darwin's own summary is as follows:
The nature and value of specific characters -- Application to the races of man -- Arguments in favour of, and opposed to, ranking the so-called races of man as distinct species -- Sub-species -- Monogenists and polygenists -- Convergence of character -- Numerous points of resemblance in body and mind between the most distinct races of man -- The state of man when he first spread over the earth--Each race not descended from a single pair -- The extinction of races--The formation of races--The effects of crossing -- Slight influence of the direct action of the conditions of life -- Slight or no influence of natural selection -- Sexual selection.
An extract from the chapter gives a flavour of Darwin's perspective on the close similarity of the many human races:
Although the existing races of man differ in many respects, as in colour, hair, shape of skull, proportions of the body, &c., yet if their whole structure be taken into consideration they are found to resemble each other closely in a multitude of points. Many of these are of so unimportant or of so singular a nature, that it is extremely improbable that they should have been independently acquired by aboriginally distinct species or races. The same remark holds good with equal or greater force with respect to the numerous points of mental similarity between the most distinct races of man. The American aborigines, Negroes and Europeans are as different from each other in mind as any three races that can be named; yet I was incessantly struck, whilst living with the Feugians on board the Beagle, with the many little traits of character, shewing how similar their minds were to ours; and so it was with a full-blooded negro with whom I happened once to be intimate.
...
Now when naturalists observe a close agreement in numerous small details of habits, tastes, and dispositions between two or more domestic races, or between nearly-allied natural forms, they use this fact as an argument that they are descended from a common progenitor who was thus endowed; and consequently that all should be classed under the same species. The same argument may be applied with much force to the races of man.
The full-blooded negro to whom Darwin refers above is almost certainly John Edmonston, a freed slave living in Edinburgh, with whom Darwin was on friendly terms and who taught Darwin taxidermy.
In the following paragraph, Darwin is also explicit in making the distinction between custom and capacity:
As it is improbable that the numerous and unimportant points of resemblance between the several races of man in bodily structure and mental faculties (I do not here refer to similar customs) should all have been independently acquired, they must have been inherited from progenitors who had these same characters. We thus gain some insight into the early state of man, before he had spread step by step over the face of the earth. ...
The pernicious linkage of Darwinism to Nazism is one of the most revolting and dishonest rhetorical devices employed by those who rebel against the scientific elucidation of our close relationship with the rest of life on this planet. Any person reading the Descent of Man must be struck at the gulf between Darwin's consistent treatment of all the human races as fellow humans in good standing; and Hitler's notions of a racial hierarchy or ladder. Just as Hitler distorted religion to his own ends, so too he distorted science to his own agenda; with no regard for the real integrity of either.
Those who deliberately promulgate a distorted view of Darwin in an attempt to denigrate his scientific insights by linking them to the insane distortions of a madman are themselves following the madman down the path of bending truth to fit ideology.
Reading the Descent of Man, all of it, is one of the best antidotes to this corruption.
Cheers -- Sylas
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