I. Has the crossing of human races been, or will it be, advantageous or detrimental to the species considered as a whole? The followers of Morton in America, and of MM. de Gobineau and Perrier in France, have stated that human crossing had, or would have in the future, disastrous consequences. Has this opinion any foundation? Let us study the facts.
M. Gobineau appeals to history, and goes back to the earliest ages of mankind. According to him, three fundamental races, the black, the yellow, and the white, were formed originally. The yellow race occupied the whole of America; the negro race all the southern parts of the old continent as far as the Caspian Sea; the white race was localised in Central Asia. The two former, degraded from an intellectual and moral as well as from a physical point of view, and unable to elevate themselves unaided above the savage state, only existed astribes. The third was the only one which united bodily beauty with a warlike spirit, to the faculty of initiative, of organization and progress, which gives rise to societies and to civilization. The day came when the yellow race burst upon Asia, and, avoiding the central region occupied by the whites, went to people the western regions of the old world. Then, this wave, continuing its course, submerged the white race, which, in its turn, began to emigrate; and by the mixture of its blood with that of the inferior races, produced all thepeopleswho have succeeded each other upon the earth. At the beginning of this new era, the white blood, being more pure and more abundant,produced superior civilizations. Becoming rarer at each new emigration, it lost its influence, and civilization diminished in every respect. The last effort of this renovating race was the Germanic invasion which destroyed the Roman world. It is now exhausted. The white blood, vitiated by the mixture, has everywhere lost its first efficacy. Mankind for this very reason is in a full decline. The fusion will soon be complete. Every individual will have in his veins one-third of white blood and two-thirds of coloured blood, and we shall then inevitably return to barbarism. Finally, the repeated crossings will have rendered the human species barren; it will then die out and disappear.
Such is, in a few words, the theory of M. de Gobineau. Let us accept it with all its hypotheses, including that of the migration from America to Asia, which is contrary to all our knowledge upon this point. Does it follow that the author is consistent? In order to be so, he ought to point out the privileged race, founding by itself one at least of those great societies, one of thosecivilizations, as M. de Gobineau calls them, recorded by history. Now the author is unable to point out a single example, and is obliged to admit that theexclusively white civilizationhas existed in Central Asia without leaving any other trace than thetumuliwhich have for a long time been attributed to Scythians, Tchoudes, etc. But everyone knows the state of the whites, when they left their Asiatic centre. In India they were the Aryans, still a half-pastoral race; in Europe, the barbarians who destroyed the Roman world. Had either of them a civilization equal to that of the Egyptians or the Greeks?
M. de Gobineau enumerates ten civilizations, namely, Assyrian, Indian, Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, Italian, German, Alleghanian, Mexican, and Peruvian. All, according to him, were produced in consequence of the mixture of whites with coloured races. But admitting that such has been the case, is it not evident that this mixture has everywhere given rise to an immense progress. The ruins of NinevehThebes, Athens, Rome, and even those of Palanqué, certainly point to populations of a different civilization to that of the people who raised the tumuli in Central Asia.
In order to draw their logical consequences from the facts which he admits or supposes, M. de Gobineau should regard the formation of half-breeds as the most powerful element of progress. As we have seen he adopts the opposite opinion. He considers that all these civilizations, which were splendid in the case of the Assyrians and Egyptians, have been dwindling away and diminishing, and what remains in our own days, only deserves our scorn.
Without being blinded by self-conceit, we may protest against this conclusion. Doubtless we no longer raise towers of Babel, nor do we build pyramids. Gigantic works which are useless, or undertaken for the glorification of a single man, do not belong to our time. But when some generally useful work arises, do we recoil before the magnitude of the task? The time truly has been badly chosen to accuse us of feebleness. The Suez Canal has been made on a different scale to the small trench of the Pharaohs, and in tunnelling the Alps for a railway, we have accomplished what antiquity had never dared to dream of.
It is still true that, takenen masse, we are less artistic than the Athenians. But without leaving the domain of the arts, there are points in which we surpass them. To judge from the anecdotes which throw light upon the nature of the talent of their greatest artists, painting and music among the Greeks were not up to the level of sculpture. If we have not our Phidias, they had not their Raphael, their Michael Angelo, their Beethoven, nor their Rossini.
But, when he condemns us to a radical inferiority, M. de Gobineau especially forgets the most striking character of modern times. He disregards thescientific development, which is without example or analogy in the past, and whichgives an absolutely fresh appearance to our civilization. We who are sprung from races crossed a hundred times, are at least the equals of our forefathers, but no longer resemble them. Inferior in some respects, we make up for it thoroughly in other respects. We manifest human power under different aspects.
Highly gifted though man may be, he cannot at once reach all the limits of the field which is open to his activity. For this reason, in time as well as in space, we find by the side of inferior peoples andraces, other peoples andraceswhich are superior, equal among themselves, but different. Such is the real information gained by a comparison of the present and past condition of mankind.
II. M. Perrier is a polygenist and an autochthonist; he makes use of the expressionpure raceas equivalent to the termspecies. Being a physician, and a learned one, he touches upon anatomical and physiological questions, and upon the limited fertility and sterility of half-breeds, and reproduces some of the opinions which I have already attacked. He pays particular attention to present populations, and endeavours to prove the superiority of those which he regards as pure. He quotes the Arabs in particular, and praises their ancient and modern civilizations. But on this point I make the same objection to him which I made to M. de Gobineau. We know very little of the Himyarites and the Adites. Caussin de Perceval shows them to have played at different times the part of conquerors; but they were conquerors who were barbarians, and whose manners were thoroughly savage. When they left their deserts under the impulse of Islamism, did they appear with the marks of civilized peoples? Certainly not. It was only after their conquests, and in consequence of the crossings which they underwent, that we find the great Arabian civilizations rise in Africa, Asia, and in Spain. Was the civilization, which was developed upon the spot, and which has been brought to light by Palgrave, equal to that of the Almohades, the Almoravides, or the Abassides? Evidently not. Here,again, crossing is found to have given rise to most striking progress.
M. Perrier lays especial stress upon physical perfection, and particularly upon that of women. Let us accept this criterion. Is purity of blood the sole cause of this beauty? If this were so, in the same country, the purest populations should show the fairest women. But in France, for example, the inhabitants of Auvergne, secluded among their mountains, are undoubtedly of a purer race than the inhabitants of the plains in Southern France, where so many different races have come in contact. Well, can the women of Upper Auvergne dispute the prize with the grisette of Arles, Toulouse, or of Montpellier? These three feminine types are very distinct; they clearly point to a mixture of blood. They are not the less remarkable in the matter of beauty, and are undoubtedly superior to the women of Auvergne. In Sicily, where all the Mediterranean populations are confused together, I have observed analogous facts at Taormina, Palermo, Trapani, etc.
As to the possibility of meeting with women remarkable for their personal attractions among mixed races, even when the Negro enters as an element in their composition, the reputation of women of colour, mulattoes and quadroons, is a sufficient proof. All travellers bear witness to the charm which they exercise upon Europeans. Taylor is most explicit upon this point, and it is at Tristan d’Acunha, a distant island half-way between the Cape and South America, that he makes his observations. In this isolated spot, a mixed population of Whites and Negroes has settled. The English traveller speaks as follows: “All who are born in the island are mulattoes, though of a very slightly pronounced type, and of very fine proportions. Almost all have the European, much more than the Negro type. I do not recollect ever having seen such splendid heads and figures as among their young girls. And yet I know all the coasts of the earth: Bali and its Malays, Havana and its Creoles, Tahiti and its nymphs, and the United States with theirdistinguished women.” It is evident that we here have a most impartial judgment in favour of mulattoes, and given by an experienced judge.
Thus female beauty is met with among certain mixed races, and is wanting among other races which are rightly regarded as the purest, the Bosjesmans and the Esquimaux. The adversaries of human crossings cannot then regard it as an argument in their favour.
III. Although modern crossings only go back three centuries, they have already produced results which make it certain that races remarkable from every point of view may be produced by crossing. The Paulists of Brazil are a striking example of the fact. The province of Saint Paul has been peopled by Portuguese and inhabitants of the Azores from the old world, who have formed alliances with the Gayanazes, a hunting and pacific tribe, and with the Carijos, who are warlike and agricultural. From these unions, which have been regularly contracted, there has sprung a race whose men have always been remarkable for their fine proportions, their physical power, indomitable courage, and endurance of fatigue. As for the women, their beauty has given rise to a Brazilian proverb which proves their superiority. This population shows its pre-eminence in every respect. If it was once remarkable for the expeditions of adventurers in search of gold or slaves, it was also the first to plant the sugar-cane in Brazil, and to breed immense herds of cattle. “In the present day,” says F. Denis, “the highest moral development as well as the most remarkable intellectual movements appear to come from Saint Paul.”
Such praises paid to a population which is almost entirely the result of a mixture of races, by a sagacious observer, who has long lived in Brazil, form a contrast to the reproaches cast upon American half-breeds by an immense majority of travellers. As a general rule they are painted in the blackest colours. Although they are allowed to possess physical beauty, and perhaps also a prompt andready intelligence, they are said to be almost entirely without morality. Let us admit that they differ as much from the Paulists in this respect as has been stated: the explanation of the contrast is not difficult to find.
At Saint Paul, the earliest unions were from the first regularly contracted, thanks to the intervention of Fathers Nobrega and Anchieta. In consequence of different circumstances, themamalucos, who were the result of these marriages, were at once accepted as the equals of the pure Whites. Here the crossing then was accomplished under normal conditions, a fact, perhaps, unique in the history of our colonies.
In reality, the mixture of races elsewhere owes its origin to the worst passions; prejudices of blood have caused half-breeds to be regarded as tainted by the vice to which they owed their origin, as outcasts fromsociety, or one might say,outlawed. Now what branch of the pure white race being born, growing, and thriving under contempt and oppression, would preserve an elevated and moral character? Moreover, would the white fathers furnish examples capable of influencing for good the children which they had abandoned? The contrary is evidently the case. Unrestrained debauchery on one side, and servile submission on the other, are the elements in the production of a half-breed race. What could heredity transmit in the way of moral character to the products of such unions?
If anything should surprise us, it is that half-breeds produced under such detestable conditions should already have been able to raise themselves. Now this has happened, even with the mulattoes, in all cases where prejudices of race have been less deeply rooted, and have yielded to personal merit. In Brazil, most of the artists and musicians are mulattoes, say MM. Troyer and de Lisboa. In confirmation of this testimony, M. Lagos added that the political capacity and scientific instinct are scarcely less developed among them than artistic aptitude. Several are doctors and medical practitioners of the highest distinction. Lastly, M. Torres Caïcedoenumerated to me among the mulattoes of his country, orators, poets, public men, and a vice-president of New Grenada, who was at the same time a distinguished author.
If the case is not the same where a social condemnation weighs upon the man of colour, the reason is that the moral and social conditions of life never lose their rights any more than the physical conditions. But the preceding will, I think, be a sufficient proof that, when placed under normal conditions, the half-breed of the Negro and the European would certainly justify in every place the words of the old traveller Thevenot: “The mulatto can do all that the white man can do; his intelligence is equal to ours.”
IV. Although I protest against the doctrines which tend to depreciate mixed races, I am far from pretending that the crossing is at all times and in all places fortunate. Undoubtedly, if the union has taken place between inferior races, the product will remain at the level of the parents. But these unions are few in number. Even in South America, the Zambo is relatively rare. The Negro appearing everywhere in slavery, has been despised by the indigenous populations, who, in spite of their dependent condition, have preserved their individual liberty, and have avoided union with the Negro.
It is the White who, impelled by his restless ardour, has invaded the world, and is every day multiplying his conquests and colonies. It is he who has searched out the home of the coloured races, and who everywhere mingles his blood with their own. Almost all the half-breed populations recognize him as their father, and this gives rise to a double result. These races are at once raised above the maternal race, and the two brought closer together, as if they possessed a common element.
Will this connection extend as far as fusion, as Serres and Maury have admitted? Will all our present races sooner or later be replaced by a single homogeneous race, everywhere endowed with the same aptitudes and governed by a common civilization? I do not think so; and what has justbeen said justifies the statement that this uniformity is impossible.
Doubtless the mixture of races, favoured and multiplied by the growing facility of communication, appears to me to prepare a new era. The races of the future, differing less in blood, and brought together by railways and steamers, will have far more inclinations, wants, and interests in common. Hence a state of things will rise superior to that with which we are acquainted, although our civilization ought, it seems to me, to continue growing in spite of present evils and approaching storms. We know how the Greek, Roman, and the modern world were developed in succession; the modern future will embrace the entire globe.
But, although this civilization will become more general and more widely spread, it will not suppress certain differences in the conditions of life. As long as there are poles and an equator, continents and islands, or mountains and plains, races will exist distinguished by characters of every kind, and superior or inferior in a physical, intellectual, and moral point of view. In spite of crossings, varieties and inequalities will continue. But as a whole, mankind will be perfected; it will have grown; and the civilizations of the future, without causing those of the past to be forgotten, will outstrip them in some as yet unknown direction, just as ours have outstripped those of our predecessors.
V. I have just closed the statement of the most general questions raised by the history of the human race.
The principal point to determine is theunityor themultiplicity of the species. There are some anthropologists, even men of high distinction, who regard it as almost an idle question, as merely a question of dogma or of philosophy. Nevertheless, a little reflection is sufficient to make it intelligible, that the science is entirely changed according as it is regarded from a monogenist’s or a polygenist’s point of view. I have already pointed out this fact; and beg permission to return to it in a few words.
After the fundamental question of unity comes that ofantiquity. This is put similarly in the two doctrines. But the problem is simple and absolute for the monogenist, but multiple and relative for the polygenist.
Thequestion of the place of origin, which next presents itself, only exists in reality for the believer in the specific unity of human groups. The doctrine of autochthonism, though greatly multiplying the question, reduces it to very simple terms, since it declares that all the populations were born upon the spot whose foreign origin it does not establish, and only admits movements of expansion.
For the polygenist thegeneral question of migrationsdoes not exist. For particular cases autochthonism supplies everything. He who regards the Polynesians as having appeared on the islands of the Pacific has not to seek whence they might have come.
Thequestion of acclimatisationfor the polygenist is reduced to a small number of facts almost exclusively modern, human populations being in his eyes naturally formed for living under the conditions of life in which they were born.
Thequestion of the formation of racesdisappears entirely for the polygenist, since the different species admitted by him have appeared with all the characters which distinguish the different human groups. At most he has to concern himself with the results of some modern crossings which are too evident to be denied.
Thequestion of primitive mandoes not exist for the polygenist, since he recognizes allhis specieswith the characters which they have had from the commencement.
No one, I think, will dispute the truth of these propositions, which compel the conclusion that anthropology is an entirely different science to the monogenist and the polygenist.
Polygenism seems to simplify the science in a singular manner; it will be said that it suppresses its most apparent difficulties. In reality it only does so by veiling or denyingthem, and thus conduces to inaccuracy. At the same time it gives rise to others, which, although less easily perceived, are nevertheless more important, for they are essentially of a physiological nature, and cannot be solved by the general laws of physiology.
Monogenism seems at first to complicate and multiply the problems. In reality it only states them clearly. By that very means, it causes the necessity of long and persevering studies to be felt, which it rewards from time to time with great discoveries. It has required almost a century and the combined efforts of travellers, geographers, physicians, linguists, and anthropologists to establish the origin of the Polynesians, to follow their migrations, and to determine the date of them. But when this work is once set on the right track, human history is found to be enriched by a magnificent page, which gives another testimony to the intelligent activity of the human race and its conquests over nature.