Schedellezen. Een Verlicht beschavingsdebat over de belichaamde natuur van de mens

Samenvatting

Reading the Human Skull. A Dutch Enlightenment Debate on the Embodied Nature of Man. Examines the history and reception of Franz Joseph Gale's phrenology in the early-1800s Netherlands in the framework of debate about the influence of nature/biology vs nurture/environment on individual humans and societies. Based on ethnological data, phrenologists argued that the study of the external features of the human skull could provide unique insights into the operations of the mind, and that individual phrenological characteristics could be related to those of groups and, hence, societies. Proponents of Gall's ideas are found in two groups: (1) adherents of the Enlightenment ideal of the perfectibility of human society, represented by Remonstrant theologian Martinus Stuart; and (2) biologists and anatomists, for whom phrenology provided a biological perspective on human society and civilization, represented by Jacob Doornik. Ethnographic aspects of, and moral arguments derived from phrenology are discussed and related to views about the assumed level or lack of civilization attributed to different people and races. 62 References. Adapted from the source document.