Early racial science ranked African women between humans and orangutans

Evidence

Fausto-Sterling (2001) wrote that Baartman’s head and facial features were examined closely for the purpose of comparison: to see where she fit in relation to “the lowest race of humans, the Negro race, and the highest race of monkeys, the orangutan,” according to a publication by Henri de Blainville in 1816. His report linked “Hottentots” more closely to orangutans than to “Negroes.” At the same time, as a woman, Baartman fell into a common scientific framework of the period that linked human females with apes (according to Fausto-Sterling, males were differentiated from other primates by invoking language, culture, intellect; females were differentiated by comparing sexual anatomy). — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 1153

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The Great Chain of Being framed all beings in a fixed value hierarchy. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 1123; Monogenist racial science still ranked white humans above Africans — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The…, 367; Respectable scientific pioneers, not just racists, furnished racism’s racial hierarchies — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 199 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Monogenist racial science still ranked white humans above Africans #expands (0.85) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 367
• Racial typing drew scientific legitimacy from downwards-directed species categories. #expands (0.85) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 584
• Respectable scientific pioneers, not just racists, furnished racism’s racial hierarchies #corroborates (0.82) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 199
• Scientific racism followed from placing humans in the animal kingdom #expands (0.80)