Rasy wyższe, rasy niższe. O popularyzacji wiedzy na temat różnorodności ludzkiej na ziemiach polskich w dobie pozytywizmu
Superior races, inferior races: On popularization of knowledge on human diversity in the Polish lands in the era of positivism

Summary/Abstract: This article aims at demonstrating why an attitude to view the human diversity according to a criterion of race originated in the society in the epoch of Positivism. It is an outline of a specific approach of Polish popular science to popularize achievements of word science in the field of anthropology. The fact that races exist was then taken for granted and efforts were made to describe them. Readers of periodicals were acquired with racial classifications based on geographical and morphological criteria, often evaluating civilizations of individual races and the races themselves. Opinions of both foreign and Polish scientists, travelers and journalists were influenced by Eurocentric world view, and consequently the recognition of a white man, his appearance, activities and civilization, as a pattern that should be followed and imitated by all others in the name of human progress. The term ‘race’ itself was not defined; moreover, it was used without consistency and arbitrarily, and frequently interchangeably with such terms as ‘generation,’ ‘people,’ ‘branch,’ ‘tribe’ and ‘nation.’ Despite the aboundance of press publications on human races, the knowledge of this notion did not became a systematic one.

• Details
• Contents