Smithsonian anthropometry manufactured mixed-blood status to legalize land sales

Evidence

Some land transfers were facilitated by a miracle of blood quantum transformation that occurred largely at the hands of Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, a physical anthropologist from the Smithsonian, who measured heads, nose bridges, and chests to determine the “Indianness” of the Indians. In his theory, the Pima Indians of Arizona were an example of “the most Indian of all Indians.” Hrdlicka developed a “full blood” physical standard against which he could measure the Anishinaabeg. In his work, families were often divided into different “blood quantums,” conferring “mixed blood” status to many, who were then considered “competent” to sell their land. In some cases, full blood children were attributed to mixed blood parents and vice versa. — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations, 609

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to settler-colonial critique thread and constructs-of-race course material; anthropometry as an instrument of dispossession parallels the manufactured racial difference arguments. — connects to: Native incommensurability claims and settler quantification cannot reconcile — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for…, 593; Sojourning white colonial rulers reward mixed-blood populations by degree of whiteness — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 852; Colonial commissions mapped affect to classify dangerous human kinds — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 608 (+2 more)
• SEED: An essay angle on ‘science as land-taking instrument’ — how measuring heads served to void Indigenous title via blood-quantum division.

Broader Connections

• Sojourning white colonial rulers reward mixed-blood populations by degree of whiteness #corroborates (0.85) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 852
• Colonial rule enforced privilege hierarchy through legal control of mixed-race parentage #corroborates (0.80) — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 976
• Colonial commissions mapped affect to classify dangerous human kinds #corroborates (0.72) — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 608
• Mixed-race status in the Cape legally presumed debasement and enabled indenture #expands (0.72)