Strange Science: Hominids

Darwin In 1619, Italian philosopher Lucilio Vanini was burned alive for suggesting that humans evolved from apes. Over two centuries later, popular society still reserved its sharpest contempt for evolutionists, as illustrated in this caricature of Charles Darwin, published in The Hornet in 1871. Yet a literal interpretation of Genesis started to unravel long before Darwin published On the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man. Europeans were deeply disturbed by the anatomical similarities they saw between themselves and apes, and they struggled to find logical explanations. Some even lumped the Khoi-San peoples (called the "Hottentots") of southern Africa into the same group as apes, classifying them as degenerate children of Adam; citing their lack of "perfect reason" and modesty, 17th-century naturalist Edward Topsell argued that "above all they cannot be Men as they have no religion." Meanwhile, what some Europeans considered evidence of the Old Testament reached new heights of absurdity. Canon Johann Jakob Scheuchzer found a fossil of what he claimed was a relic of "the accursed race that must have been swallowed up by the waters" of the Great Flood. Less than a century later, French naturalist Georges Cuvier demonstrated that the bones had really belonged to a giant salamander.

Year: 1799
Scientist/artist: Charles White
Originally published in: An Account of the Regular Gradation in Man, and in Different Animals and Vegetables
Now appears in: The Flamingo's Smile by Stephen Jay Gould and Humankind by Felipe Fernández-Armesto
This particularly odious depiction of "lower" and "higher" life forms was once widely accepted as part of the Great Chain of Being. In this depiction, the lowest form of human life is the Negro, and at the top of the ladder is the Greek ideal. The depictions are carefully arranged so that "lower" humans appear in close proximity to "lower" animals. "In whatever respect the African differs from the European," White wrote, "the particularity brings him nearer to the ape."

Engravings Year: 1799
Scientist/artist: Charles White
Originally published in: An Account of the Regular Gradation in Man, and in Different Animals and Vegetables
Now appears in: Humankind by Felipe Fernández-Armesto
White described this plate as including "copies of the best authenticated engraving" of apes, as well as profiles of a "native of Botany Bay" and an African.

Human Variations Year: 1493
Originally published in: Nuremberg Chronicle
Now appears in: Amazing Rare Things by Attenborough, Owens, Clayton and Alexandratos
Europeans imagined all sorts of odd "people" lived elsewhere in the world: people with horns, with giant floppy ears, with giant single feet, to name a few. This late 15th-century publication shows a few of the odd humans assumed to live elsewhere. The bottom picture shows a human whose face appears on his or her torso. The middle picture is of a cyclops. The top picture is apparently of a werewolf crossed with a cheesy lounge singer.

Engravings Year: 1851
Scientist/artist: Robert Knox
Originally published in: The Races of Men
Now appears in: Making Modern Science by Bowler and Morus
If the work of Robert Knox was any indication, not much improved in race relations between the beginning and the middle of the 19th century. To Victorian minds, a sloping forehead implied and tiny brain, and Knox sure wanted his readers to get his point about people of color.

Woodcut of monstrous races Year: 1475
Scientist/artist: Konrad von Megenberg
Originally published in: Book of Nature
Now appears in: "Marvels of the East: A Study in the History of Monsters" by Rudolf Wittkower in Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 1942
The notion that faraway lands — India in particular — held monstrous human races arose in Antiquity, when some Greek scholars spread fabulous accounts. The Greeks had their share of skeptics who challenged such stories, but while the skeptics' criticisms were lost to medieval Europeans, the fantastic tales lived on, thanks to the uncritical writings of Pliny and others. For all their belief in monstrous races, Europeans in the Middle Ages adopted a pretty generous stance about them, insisting that even the monstrous races were God's children. Monsters as portents of divine punishment may have been more common during the sectarian tensions of the Reformation.

Depiction Year: 1758
Scientist/artist: Carolus Linnaeus
Originally published in: Systema Naturae
Now appears in: Human Origins: The Search for Our Beginnings by Herbert Thomas
It's impossible to overestimate the contribution Linnaeus made to science — he developed the system for classifying all living organisms that is still in use today. Yet his uncertainty about how to classify apes and humans is obvious from some of his depictions. He even developed terms such as "day man" and "night man," and admitted that he couldn't find a characteristic to differentiate humans from apes.

Comparison Year: 1812
Scientist/artist: F. Jacob
Originally published in: Histoire Naturelle des Singes
Now appears in: Human Origins: The Search for Our Beginnings by Herbert Thomas
Jacob showed the fetus of a monkey and a human side by side to illustrate their similarities, maintaining that the only thing the monkey lacked was a soul.

Map Year: 1868
Scientist/artist: Ernst Haeckel
Originally published in: Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte
Now appears in: Human Origins: The Search for Our Beginnings by Herbert Thomas
Haeckel divided humanity into no less than 12 distinct species, based upon hair type, skull shape, skin color and eye color. Although he believed humanity now comprised 12 species, he maintained that they had all arisen from a single ancestral type that once lived on a continent now submerged beneath the Indian Ocean.

Neanderthal Year: 1909
Originally published in: Illustrated London News
Now appears in: Life by Richard Fortey (Also discussed in Java Man by Swisher, Curtis and Lewin)
As this depiction of a Neanderthal shows, some early 20th-century scientists thought this hominid to be very furry. Earlier hypotheses about the first Neanderthal fossil suggested that the individual suffered from rickets, hence the bowed legs, and that the pain from the condition caused the sufferer to habitually furrow his brow, producing prominent brow ridges. (In fact, extensive use of facial muscles can cause bone buildup where those muscles attach, but they can't make a modern human skull look Neanderthal.)

Busts Year: 1836
Scientist: George Combe (based on earlier work by Johann Caspar Spurzheim)
Originally published in: Outlines of Phrenology
Now appears in: Victorian Sensation by James A. Secord (Also discussed in Postcards from the Brain Museum by Brian Burrell, and Making Modern Science by Bowler and Morus)
Although modern science has tied certain functions to various regions of the brain, we realize there's still so much we don't know. Nineteenth-century phrenologists were a lot more confident — and convinced that they could tell a patient's mental abilities from the shape of his or her skull. "Phrenological organs" of the brain named in this work included (among many others) destructiveness, secretiveness, veneration, hope, wonder, wit and individuality. Spurzheim, the popularizer of phrenology, took many of his ideas from Franz Josef Gall. Gall and Spurzheim started out as colleagues but later had a philosophical split. Though he got wrapped up in the silly notion of skull shapes, Gall was onto something regarding localization of certain brain functions.

Mandrill Year: 1744
Scientist: William Smith (not the 19th-century geologist)
Now appears in: Man's Place in Nature by T.H. Huxley
Huxley discredited this image in 1863, and suggested that it really represented a chimpanzee. By the time Huxley wrote, human understanding of the great apes had substantially improved. He quoted from a paper published in 1852 by a new researcher: "opportunities for receiving a knowledge of the [gorilla] have not been wanting; traders having for one hundred years frequented [the Congo region of Africa], and specimens, such as have been brought here within a year, could not have been exhibited without having attracted the attention of the most stupid."

Map Year: 1915
Scientist: William Diller Matthew
Originally published in: "Climate and Evolution" in Annals N.Y. Acad. Sci.
Now appears in: Man Rises to Parnassus by Henry Fairfield Osborn
Following up a lecture he delivered in 1911, William Diller Matthew published this map showing his hypothesis about the origin and dispersal of human races. From Asia, "Mongols" headed north and into the Americas, "Caucasians" headed into southern and western Europe, "Malays" went eastward and morphed into Australian Aborigines, and "Negroids" aimed for Africa. "Negritos" probably referred to the Khoi-San of southern Africa. Nobody much liked the idea now commonly accepted today: African ancestry for all modern humans.

Faces Year: 1927
Scientist: Henry Fairfield Osborn
Artist: James Howard McGregor
Originally published in: Man Rises to Parnassus by Henry Fairfield Osborn
Titled "The Rise of Character in the Human Face," this collection of busts shows Osborn's conception of human ancestry. Although debate continues about the possible contribution of Neanderthal DNA to that of modern humans, Neanderthals are no longer regarded as direct ancestors. Yet Osborn's inclusion of the Neanderthal as a direct ancestor is dwarfed by another gaffe: the inclusion of Piltdown Man.

Eugenics triangle of life Year: c. 1930
Originally appeared in: Traveling exhibit on eugenics
Now appears in: Better for All the World by Harry Bruinius
If people could breed better pigs, chickens and cows, they could certainly breed better children. Traveling exhibits in the first half of the 20th century showed the simple logic of heritage trumping education and environment. Ironically, some of the main thinkers behind the eugenics movement had troubles of their own. Harry Laughlin, who vigorously campaigned for the sterilization of the unfit, kept secret his own epilepsy. Of course, epilepsy in no way diminishes one's worth as a human being (unless, unfortunately, one is a eugenicist). Another thinker behind the movement, Charles Davenport, confidently predicted that his daughter would — like himself — respect the values of Protestant America, manage expenses responsibly, and prefer nature to art. His daughter turned out to be a bohemian spendthrift. Even worse, she was a bohemian spendthrift who defied her daddy and married a Jew.

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Narrative text and graphic design © by Michon Scott - Updated April 5, 2008

		Year: 1799 Scientist/artist: Charles White Originally published in: An Account of the Regular Gradation in Man, and in Different Animals and Vegetables Now appears in: The Flamingo's Smile by Stephen Jay Gould and Humankind by Felipe Fernández-Armesto This particularly odious depiction of "lower" and "higher" life forms was once widely accepted as part of the Great Chain of Being. In this depiction, the lowest form of human life is the Negro, and at the top of the ladder is the Greek ideal. The depictions are carefully arranged so that "lower" humans appear in close proximity to "lower" animals. "In whatever respect the African differs from the European," White wrote, "the particularity brings him nearer to the ape."

		Year: 1799 Scientist/artist: Charles White Originally published in: An Account of the Regular Gradation in Man, and in Different Animals and Vegetables Now appears in: Humankind by Felipe Fernández-Armesto White described this plate as including "copies of the best authenticated engraving" of apes, as well as profiles of a "native of Botany Bay" and an African.

		Year: 1493 Originally published in: Nuremberg Chronicle Now appears in: Amazing Rare Things by Attenborough, Owens, Clayton and Alexandratos Europeans imagined all sorts of odd "people" lived elsewhere in the world: people with horns, with giant floppy ears, with giant single feet, to name a few. This late 15th-century publication shows a few of the odd humans assumed to live elsewhere. The bottom picture shows a human whose face appears on his or her torso. The middle picture is of a cyclops. The top picture is apparently of a werewolf crossed with a cheesy lounge singer.

		Year: 1851 Scientist/artist: Robert Knox Originally published in: The Races of Men Now appears in: Making Modern Science by Bowler and Morus If the work of Robert Knox was any indication, not much improved in race relations between the beginning and the middle of the 19th century. To Victorian minds, a sloping forehead implied and tiny brain, and Knox sure wanted his readers to get his point about people of color.

		Year: 1475 Scientist/artist: Konrad von Megenberg Originally published in: Book of Nature Now appears in: "Marvels of the East: A Study in the History of Monsters" by Rudolf Wittkower in Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 1942 The notion that faraway lands — India in particular — held monstrous human races arose in Antiquity, when some Greek scholars spread fabulous accounts. The Greeks had their share of skeptics who challenged such stories, but while the skeptics' criticisms were lost to medieval Europeans, the fantastic tales lived on, thanks to the uncritical writings of Pliny and others. For all their belief in monstrous races, Europeans in the Middle Ages adopted a pretty generous stance about them, insisting that even the monstrous races were God's children. Monsters as portents of divine punishment may have been more common during the sectarian tensions of the Reformation.

		Year: 1758 Scientist/artist: Carolus Linnaeus Originally published in: Systema Naturae Now appears in: Human Origins: The Search for Our Beginnings by Herbert Thomas It's impossible to overestimate the contribution Linnaeus made to science — he developed the system for classifying all living organisms that is still in use today. Yet his uncertainty about how to classify apes and humans is obvious from some of his depictions. He even developed terms such as "day man" and "night man," and admitted that he couldn't find a characteristic to differentiate humans from apes.

		Year: 1812 Scientist/artist: F. Jacob Originally published in: Histoire Naturelle des Singes Now appears in: Human Origins: The Search for Our Beginnings by Herbert Thomas Jacob showed the fetus of a monkey and a human side by side to illustrate their similarities, maintaining that the only thing the monkey lacked was a soul.

		Year: 1868 Scientist/artist: Ernst Haeckel Originally published in: Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte Now appears in: Human Origins: The Search for Our Beginnings by Herbert Thomas Haeckel divided humanity into no less than 12 distinct species, based upon hair type, skull shape, skin color and eye color. Although he believed humanity now comprised 12 species, he maintained that they had all arisen from a single ancestral type that once lived on a continent now submerged beneath the Indian Ocean.

		Year: 1909 Originally published in: Illustrated London News Now appears in: Life by Richard Fortey (Also discussed in Java Man by Swisher, Curtis and Lewin) As this depiction of a Neanderthal shows, some early 20th-century scientists thought this hominid to be very furry. Earlier hypotheses about the first Neanderthal fossil suggested that the individual suffered from rickets, hence the bowed legs, and that the pain from the condition caused the sufferer to habitually furrow his brow, producing prominent brow ridges. (In fact, extensive use of facial muscles can cause bone buildup where those muscles attach, but they can't make a modern human skull look Neanderthal.)

		Year: 1836 Scientist: George Combe (based on earlier work by Johann Caspar Spurzheim) Originally published in: Outlines of Phrenology Now appears in: Victorian Sensation by James A. Secord (Also discussed in Postcards from the Brain Museum by Brian Burrell, and Making Modern Science by Bowler and Morus) Although modern science has tied certain functions to various regions of the brain, we realize there's still so much we don't know. Nineteenth-century phrenologists were a lot more confident — and convinced that they could tell a patient's mental abilities from the shape of his or her skull. "Phrenological organs" of the brain named in this work included (among many others) destructiveness, secretiveness, veneration, hope, wonder, wit and individuality. Spurzheim, the popularizer of phrenology, took many of his ideas from Franz Josef Gall. Gall and Spurzheim started out as colleagues but later had a philosophical split. Though he got wrapped up in the silly notion of skull shapes, Gall was onto something regarding localization of certain brain functions.

		Year: 1744 Scientist: William Smith (not the 19th-century geologist) Now appears in: Man's Place in Nature by T.H. Huxley Huxley discredited this image in 1863, and suggested that it really represented a chimpanzee. By the time Huxley wrote, human understanding of the great apes had substantially improved. He quoted from a paper published in 1852 by a new researcher: "opportunities for receiving a knowledge of the [gorilla] have not been wanting; traders having for one hundred years frequented [the Congo region of Africa], and specimens, such as have been brought here within a year, could not have been exhibited without having attracted the attention of the most stupid."

		Year: 1915 Scientist: William Diller Matthew Originally published in: "Climate and Evolution" in Annals N.Y. Acad. Sci. Now appears in: Man Rises to Parnassus by Henry Fairfield Osborn Following up a lecture he delivered in 1911, William Diller Matthew published this map showing his hypothesis about the origin and dispersal of human races. From Asia, "Mongols" headed north and into the Americas, "Caucasians" headed into southern and western Europe, "Malays" went eastward and morphed into Australian Aborigines, and "Negroids" aimed for Africa. "Negritos" probably referred to the Khoi-San of southern Africa. Nobody much liked the idea now commonly accepted today: African ancestry for all modern humans.

		Year: 1927 Scientist: Henry Fairfield Osborn Artist: James Howard McGregor Originally published in: Man Rises to Parnassus by Henry Fairfield Osborn Titled "The Rise of Character in the Human Face," this collection of busts shows Osborn's conception of human ancestry. Although debate continues about the possible contribution of Neanderthal DNA to that of modern humans, Neanderthals are no longer regarded as direct ancestors. Yet Osborn's inclusion of the Neanderthal as a direct ancestor is dwarfed by another gaffe: the inclusion of Piltdown Man.

		Year: c. 1930 Originally appeared in: Traveling exhibit on eugenics Now appears in: Better for All the World by Harry Bruinius If people could breed better pigs, chickens and cows, they could certainly breed better children. Traveling exhibits in the first half of the 20th century showed the simple logic of heritage trumping education and environment. Ironically, some of the main thinkers behind the eugenics movement had troubles of their own. Harry Laughlin, who vigorously campaigned for the sterilization of the unfit, kept secret his own epilepsy. Of course, epilepsy in no way diminishes one's worth as a human being (unless, unfortunately, one is a eugenicist). Another thinker behind the movement, Charles Davenport, confidently predicted that his daughter would — like himself — respect the values of Protestant America, manage expenses responsibly, and prefer nature to art. His daughter turned out to be a bohemian spendthrift. Even worse, she was a bohemian spendthrift who defied her daddy and married a Jew.