Monogenism - Biology, Specific Unity and Varieties of Man

Biology, Specific Unity and Varieties of Man

Polygenism, in its biological form, asserted that different races corresponded to different species. Monogenism therefore attracted interest to the biological assertion of "specific unity", or single species theory of humankind. An argument brought against monogenism in its environmentalist form was that it involved a Lamarckian hypothesis on inheritance. This debating point was used, for example, by Agassiz. James Lawrence Cabell argued that reference to Lamarck was irrelevant to determining whether specific unity was a scientific fact. Cabell's view was of a common creation of humankind, which had "permanent varieties" in the form of races.

Augustus Henry Keane in 1896 wrote of:

two assumptions, both strenuously denied by many ethnologists, firstly, that the Hominidæ descend from a single precursor, secondly, that their differences are comparatively slight, or not sufficiently pronounced to be regarded as specific.

These assumptions, Keane argued, would justify putting race on the same footing as the botanical concept of variety. He described his own views as "unorthodox monogenesis". Monogenism was compatible with racial discrimination, via the argument on disposition to accept "civilization".