Craniometry

of polygenism . Polygenism proposes that humans do not have common ancestry, and therefore are not truly the same or equal, puts strict limits on environmental influences, involves an unchanging underlying type, defines physical and mental worth based on race, and is proved by anatomical and cranial measurement differences between races . In his book, The Outline of History of Mankind, he claims that the main characteristics of race are appearance and sensitivity, labeling his the "beautiful White race" and others the "ugly Black race" and “unintelligent Yellow race” . To Meiners, ugly races were inferior and animal-like, while beautiful races were superior and refined , and only the White race was beautiful. He performed a number of craniometries (measuring of skulls) and concluded that the less sensitive and smaller skulls were inferior, and also “observed” the diet of different races, both of which would now no longer constitute scientific proof. The belief in his theories was based almost purely off of a will to believe, the glaring lack of evidence in his work (he claimed that the Native American skull was so thick a Spanish sword would shatter on it ) and the clear bias in his writing are proof that the new scientific method was merely an excuse to legitimize work that the public or “scientists” wished to be true. While Christoph Meiners’ book may have been widely criticized by monogenists and now by most historians, it was still fundamental in establishing scientific…

Most famously, the works of Robert Noxx’s Races of Men, Thomas Carlyle’s Heroes and Hero Worship, and Charles Darwin’s On the Origins of Species. Robert Noxx was one of the forefathers for scientific racism as he argued in his book that superior races would naturally dominant inferior races. Thomas Carlyle argued that inequality was the proper way to rule a society and those who “know” should rule those who “do not know”. Furthermore, a scientist and physician named Samuel George Morton studied…