Anthropology and Race in Belgium and the Congo (1839-1922) (Routledge Studies in Cultural History)

Cover Half Title Series Title Copyright Contents List of Figures Introduction 1 Jean-Baptiste d’Omalius d’Halloy: Racial Classifications and the Attack on the Aryan Myth (1839–64) Misleadingly Modest Science and Politics Skin Color and Races Linguistics and History Types and Climate Races, Branches, Families, and Peoples Out of Asia or Out of Europe? ‘We Save Not a Single Soul’ 2 Léon Vanderkindere: Race and Evolution (1845–82) The Maze Vanderkindere on Race (1868) The Prussian Controversy Vanderkindere on Ethnology (1872) Congrès International d’Anthropologie et d’Archéologie Préhistoriques (1872) Discussion Without End (1873) Vanderkindere on Evolution Color Research on Hair and Eyes (1879) 3 Victor Jacques and Emile Houzé: The Anthropological Society of Brussels (1882–86) An Abandoned Child Emile Houzé Victor Jacques Eye to Eye Polygenists and Transformists Self-Exclusion From Pathology Africa: A ‘Blank’ Space The Geographical Conference (1876) Colonial Anthropology Antwerp (1885) Bantsetse and Bwana Boma 4 A Myth that Escapes to Touch (1887–97) Topinard and Firmin Dampened Fervor Monogenism and Evolution Darwinism, Colonialism, and the Missing Link Anthropology in Congo and Antwerp 1894 We Can’t Help Laughing 5 Craniological Alchemy (1897–1914) Brussels–Tervuren (1897) The Congo Museum (1898) de Haulleville and Pirenne (1898–1900) Dupont, Rutot, and Engerrand Annus Horribilis (1911) Gaston Daniel Arsène Matton 6 Arrogance and Emancipation (1914–22) He Is Dead! A History of Horrors and Masterpieces Prestige and Anxiety Conclusion: On Anthropology and Race Bibliography Index This book examines the history of Belgian physical anthropology in the long nineteenth century and discusses how the notion of ‘race’ structured Belgian pasts and presents as well as relations between metropole and empire. In a context of competing European nationalisms, Belgian anthropologists mainly used physical characters, like skull form and the color of hair and eyes, to delimitate ‘races’, which were believed to be permanent and existent. Their belief in a supposed racial superiority was however above all telling about their own origins and physical characters. Although it is often assumed that these ideas were subsequently transferred to the colony, the case of Belgian colonization in Congo shows that colonial administrators, at least in theory, were reluctant to use the idea of permanent ‘races’ because they needed the possibility of ‘evolution’ to legitimize their actions as part of a ‘civilizing mission’. In reality, however, colonization was based on military occupation and economic exploitation, with devastating effects. This book analyzes how, in this violent context, widespread racial prejudices in fact dehumanized Congolese. This not only allowed colonizers to act inhuman but also reduced Congolese, or their body parts, to objects that could be measured, photographed, casted, and ‘collected’. This volume will be of use to students and scholars alike interested in social and cultural history as well as imperial and colonial history.