12" Ceramic Phrenology Head

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Bunge (1985), p.54; Stiles (2012), p.11; Cooter (1990), p.156; Christison-Lagay & Cohen (2013), pp.337–354 According to Cambridge University, phrenologists promoted Morton's ideas, thus turning the study of the skull into a way to justify the forcible relocation and the subjugation of Native American people.

Hines, Terence (1988). Pseudoscience and the paranormal: a critical examination of the evidence. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books. ISBN 0879754192. OCLC 17462273. Instead, their “individual history and characters should be inquired into”, and only the redeemable sent. And, of course, the best way to achieve this was by using phrenology, which would be “an engine of unlimited power” in shaping the reform of criminals. Winn, J. M. (1879). "Mind and Living Particles". Journal of Psychological Medicine and Mental Pathology. 5 (1): 18–29. PMC 5122056. PMID 28906933. After the execution, medical men descended on the corpses. They paid particular attention to the malefactors’ skulls, and the following day’s The Argus explained how “cerebral physiology” had revealed that both were, in effect, natural born killers. Could an examination of the lumps and valleys on your head guide you to the right lover, give clues to the kind of parent you'd be or help determine your career path? Phrenologists in the 19th century thought so, and they convinced hordes of people to pay to have their heads examined.But the Secretary of State was unmoved by phrenology’s claims. And so too was the legal profession as a whole. Impact in the colonies

Although Gall believed that the phrenological structure of brains was fixed, his successors contended that these traits were malleable. This provided justification for phrenology as an early biological theory of crime as well as in educating those of lower classes about their position in society by 19th-century advocates. With this most phrenologists concurred: however underdeveloped a mental organ was, the criminal still possessed the ability to make a moral decision.

But although phrenology may seem harmless, it was also seized upon by pro-slavery advocates who argued that it supported white supremacy. The Dark Side Of Phrenology Even at the height of its popularity in the early 1800s, phrenology was controversial and is now considered discredited by modern science. By the 1840s, pseudoscience was mostly discredited as a scientific theory.

By the 1790s, Gall began to study the localization of mental functions in the brain, believing that certain areas were responsible for psychological activity. Gall further believed that the shape of the skull reflected personality traits and mental abilities that corresponded to the topography of the brain. He called this "science of the head" craniology and, later, after believing the brain to be not one organ but a group of organs, changed the name of his study to organology.Robinson Storer, H. (1866). "Report on Insanity in Women". Transactions of the American Medical Association. 16: 134. Differences in the physical and behavioral characteristics of peoples have been noted since antiquity. Records from ancient Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Hebrew, Chinese, and other civilizations remarked upon the distinctions among the languages, customs, and appearance of peoples. However, it was not until the rise of European exploration, conquest, and colonialism that something like the modern concept of “race” begin to take hold. This idea stipulated innate, inherited, unchanging differences, behavioral as well as physical, in human groups. 1 One of the first Europeans to classify humans based on race was the French physician and traveler François Bernier (1620-1688). In 1684, Bernier classified humans into distinct races based on geography. 2 Bernier’s classification was typical of those that followed through the 18 th century, which were based on observations and reports from travelers, missionaries, and colonial officials. These reports often supplied highly ethnocentric descriptions of skin color, temperament, and other features which were used to classify human races. Some of these authors spoke from the authority of their own experience in Africa, Asia, or the Americas, as did Bernier. Other authors relied on their scholarly expertise as naturalists, as did, for example, the Swedish taxonomist Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1788). 3 All of these early racial classifications were largely the product of written field reports and observations until the late 18 th century and the rise of comparative anatomy.