\doc\web\2002\10\boasbrai.txt
From: j.p. rushton 
Sent: Saturday, October 12, 2002 11:21 AM
Subject: [h-bd] Boas not a social relativist?


JP Rushton on Boas:


Perhaps we have to distinguish between the younger and older Boas. I
was surprised to learn only a couple of years ago that in 1894 Boas
accepted data on race differences in brain size and drew important
conclusions about relative intellectual performance based on the
amount of overlap in the distributions. Boas found that only 27% of
Blacks exceeded the White brain size average, rather than the 50% that
should have done had the races been equal. Arguing "that the greater
the central nervous system, the higher the faculty of the race and the
greater its aptitude to mental development," Boas concluded, "We
might, therefore, anticipate a lack of men of high genius (among
Blacks)." Boas had also concluded, following his work with Plains
Indians and French-Canadian Whites, that the mixed-race group was
intermediate between the two parental populations on various
anthropomorphic traits and showed hybrid vigor and were more fertile
than either parental population.  


Later he became very active in various ethnic agenda issues, like
immigration restriction, and civil rights for blacks, and the eugenics
movement. Carl Degler, the eminent historian (In Search of Human
Nature) credits Boas with being he who decoupled biological and
cultural evolution. The two have yet to be satisfactory re-integrated
despite several attempts to do so (Pinker's good but "pinko" attempt
being the latest). In a later life I intend to come back and write a
full history of race research from Darwin to the present and just see
exactly how, when, and why race differences in brain size and IQ could
be made to disappear of the scientific radar screen. As far as I know
this is the first time knowledge known to leaders in the field (like
Charles Darwin and Franz Boas in the 19th century) is unknown by the
leaders of today (Steven Pinker, Leda Cosmides).