Proper Studies
THIS symposium contains papers read to a con- ference organised by the Royal Anthropological Institute and the Institute of Race Relations. The worthy intention was to have a group of 'experts' expound the facts of race and race prejudice; in the event, the contributors havered uncertainly between honour for The Origin of Species and woe for the implications of Notting Hill. -
Since it is manifest that breeds of men, like
breeds of dogs, are diverse in their physical appearance it is a proper field of scientific inquiry to determine just what these differences are, how they arose and what they imply for Man con- sidered as a zoological species. A biologist, two physical anthropologists and a geneticist survey the essential facts with professional objectivity. (But is it really necessary in a book' of this kind to use words like homeostasis?) After that come two psychologists somewhat at cross purposes. Professor Vernon finds it reasonable to assume that groups of men of different physical type differ in their innate capacities. He admits that such differences have never been fully established. Dr. Jahoda, with a psychoanalytic approach, assumes that all beliefs about the moral and intellectual qualities of particular racial groups are matters of fallacious prejudice. Her concern is with why such beliefs should be held. Two sociologists (MacRae, Freedman) then discuss the sociology of such prejudice, the first in its historical con- text, the second in its contemporary British set- ting. The problems here are matters of belief not of fact. All of us are prone to attribute general characteristics to whole categories of people— Aristocrats are noble, Jews are crafty, Negroes are lecherous, Criminals are psychologically abnormal; and we then go further and assume that these imagined qualities are due to breeding rather than to education or social environment. Both authors are most perceptive in displaying the roots and consequences of such prejudice, but this does not deter them from flaunting preju- dices of their own. Dr. Freedman is a British Jew and proud of it; his recommendation that coloured minorities in Britain will do well to maintain themselves, in partial segregation has surely been influenced by this fact? In addition, three experts on colonial administration assess the influence of racialist ideas on the recent history of three-quarters of the globe.
The net effect is soporific. There is nothing here to shock the liberal conscience. Physical differences in Man are real but do not justify discrimination. Discrimination is lamentable but everything can be put right by legislation and education. The Colonial Office is a most enlight- ened institution somewhat behind the times: It is all a matter of psychology and prejudice and any idea that economic exploitation is the root of the matter `can be easily disposed of.' A Marxist bull in the china shop would certainly have enlivened the proceedings. Lancelot Hogben's essay is the best. I am delighted to learn that Leibnitz, whom Bertrand Russell elsewhere places 'among the supreme intellects of all time,' had a cranial capacity substantially less than that of an average Negro and I cannot resist the panache with which the 'science' of physical anthropology is finally demolished: `like its parent phrenology harm- less as a hobby for the opulent aged but with no rational claim to support from the public purse.'
EDMUND LEACH
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