15 Feb 2010 5:00pm - 6:30pm Dept History & Philosophy of Science, Free School Lane

Description

Dr Andrew Wells,  Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh

 






 

 Abstract

 

This paper will briefly explore the interaction between theories of race and those of ‘generation’ which were most prominent in eighteenth-century Britain. The division of theories of race into two groups (those – ‘monogenist’ – which endorsed the biblical account of creation, and those – ‘polygenist’ which did not) parallels that of theories of generation (preformationist and epigenesist). Yet where there appear to be similarities – between, for example, polygenist and epigenesist theories, which both emphasised the creation of the individual from the union of its parents – these did not play out in the scientific and popular discourses of the day. This paper will examine why these parallels were not established in the period, and how religious considerations played perhaps the most important role in the formation of modern identities in both racial and embryological theories.

 
 

 

Biography

 

Andrew Wells has recently completed a doctorate at the University of Oxford on the interrelation of sex and race in eighteenth-century Britain. He is currently Newby Trust Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh. He is working on a study of the legal constitution of identity in eighteenth-century Britain.

 

Open to all.  No registration required

For more information about the group, please visit the link on the right hand of this page 

Upcoming Events

CENTRE FOR RESEARCH IN THE ARTS, SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

Tel: +44 1223 766886
Email enquiries@crassh.cam.ac.uk