De l’influence attribuée à l’action des climats sur la production des diverses espèces ou variétés d

CHAP. 5: > Of the influence attributed to the action of climates on the production of the diverse species or varieties of men. — Of the invasions of peoples of diverse species into one another's territory, and of the confusion that has resulted therefrom.

But it is not only by the color of the complexion that the diverse species or varieties of men differ from one another; there exists between them a certain number of differences that would suffice to characterize them, even if they resembled each other in color. These differences cannot be produced by artificial means employed by men on themselves; but can they not be by the action of climates? In other words, are the particular characteristics of each species the same in all latitudes? If these characteristics vary, must the variations be attributed to the difference of climates?

To resolve these questions, one must not compare the individuals of one species to the individuals of another species; one must compare among themselves the diverse nations into which each species is subdivided. The differences that exist among some of them are very numerous, and we are far from having observed them all. Thus, my only purpose here is to concern myself with those that have the most importance or that indicate an understanding more or less susceptible to development.

The Caucasian species has spread over the globe in all directions; one encounters it on all continents and in all latitudes. It occupies almost exclusively Europe, for the territory inhabited by the Lapps and by the Finns hardly deserves to be counted. It has spread from Europe into all the other parts of the world; the French, the English, the Dutch, the Spanish, and the Portuguese occupy the American continent and the islands that adjoin it, from Hudson Bay to the Rio Negro. In each of the parts of this continent, all have conserved not only the color particular to their species, but all the principal features that characterize it. The French, the Dutch, the English, and the Portuguese have likewise spread over the coasts of Africa from Senegal to the Cape of Good Hope. The distinctive features of their species have remained as invariable as the color. The descendants of the Dutch have not taken on at the Cape any feature of resemblance to the Hottentots, the Boschmans, or the Kaffirs. The descendants of the Portuguese, on the Mozambique Channel, and the descendants of the French, in the Isle de France, have no more taken on the features of the tribes that inhabit the eastern coast of Africa. The Moors and the Arabs have conserved on this continent all the particular features of their species. The English established in Hindustan, the Dutch established in the Moluccas, the Spanish in the Philippines, have not taken on any of the characteristics of the Mongolian species or of the Malay species. Finally, the particular characteristics of the Mongolian species have ended by disappearing among the Persians who have constantly interbred with women of the Caucasian species. The influence of the species has shown itself to be superior to the influence attributed to the climate.

The peoples among whom the features that characterize the Caucasian species are the most marked are those who inhabit the Caucasus mountains. The peoples among whom the features proper to the Mongolian species are the most pronounced are those who inhabit the center of Asia. It is particularly among them that one observes men having a flat, broad, and square face, small and diagonally placed eyes, a large mouth, a crushed nose, a voluminous head, a short neck, black, coarse, and straight hair, and a short and stocky build. These features have no more yielded to the influence of climates than the yellowish or swarthy complexion that belongs to the same peoples; they are the same in the provinces closest to Hindustan as in the mountains of the north [66]. They are the same throughout the extent of China [67], on the eastern coasts of Asia [68], in the islands that are near it [69], in Kamchatka [70], in the Fox Islands [71], and in the north of America [72]. Puberty is more precocious among women of the Mongolian species than among women of the other species; it manifests itself from nine to twelve years of age. This characteristic, which has been attributed to the heat of the climate, because it was first observed in the south of Asia, exists in the coldest climates as in the hottest. It is found on the northwest coast of America, among the Eskimos; and in Asia among the Kamtchadales and the Korockas, where girls of ten are often mothers [73].

The peoples whom naturalists have classed under the denomination of Ethiopian species or variety differ so much from one another that, if one does not characterize them by color, it is very difficult to find common features in them, and consequently to determine the general characteristics that distinguish them. Neither history nor tradition having ever made known to us the migrations of any of these peoples; all, since they have been known to us, having remained attached to the soil they occupy today or having moved at least only to transport themselves short distances, we have no means of determining whether the differences that distinguish them are or are not the product of climate. It is true that, by carrying on the slave trade, the Europeans have succeeded in forming colonies of Negroes far from the continent of Africa. But it has resulted from the manner in which these colonies were formed, a mixture of races that no longer permits one to recognize what the origin of the current Negro population was. The effects produced by these forced transmigrations have, moreover, been too little observed for one to flatter oneself with knowing them and especially with assigning their causes. One is thus reduced to reasoning on conjectures or analogies.

We have seen that the color of the Negro varieties is not susceptible to being modified by the temperature of the atmosphere, and we have no reason to believe that the other particular characteristics of these peoples are more susceptible to modification. We must think, on the contrary, that these characteristics cannot be changed by such a cause, when we see that all the other species conserve the features that are proper to them, in all climates. If the descendants of the Europeans established at the Cape of Good Hope, for example, do not take on any of the particular features of the Boschmans; if the Mongols established in the north of America do not take on the features that distinguish the American species; if the Malays, in the Sunda Islands, take on neither the features of the African species, nor those of the Mongolian species [74], what reasons could we have to think that the Negroes of the Congo transported to the Cape of Good Hope would there become dwarfs similar to the Boschmans, or that the Boschmans transported to the Congo would there take on a colossal stature? The Kaffirs, so remarkable for their tall stature, for the beauty of their proportions, for the regularity of their features, are but a short distance from the Boschmans, whose height does not exceed four feet, and whose conformation appears monstrous to us. Is there any reason that could determine us to believe that, if these two peoples took the place of one another, while conserving their same way of life, they would also change their proportions by the sole effect of climate?

If the features that distinguish the Negro species from the Caucasian species were the product of climate, the Hottentots of the Cape would be, of all the African peoples, those who would most approach the Europeans, and this resemblance would weaken as one advanced toward the torrid zone; but this is not what happens: peoples who live in a much hotter climate than that which the Hottentots inhabit approach much more than they do the peoples of the Caucasus. The Kaffirs differ so little from us in features that a traveler believed them to be descended from the Bedouin Arabs [75]. The same features are found among other African tribes who inhabit a still hotter climate:

"I do not fear to advance," says Dauxion-Lavaisse, "that despite the similarity of the color of Negroes, there is much variety in the shape of the heads of the diverse nations or tribes, and that the Mandingoes, the Koromantins, and the Mozambiques, for example, have a head of as beautiful a form as the European, and the rest of the body as beautiful and as strong. If ever a collection of skulls of these three nations is made, I do not fear to predict that many will be found whose facial angle will exceed eighty degrees [76]."

Advancing further toward the equator, more remarkable phenomena present themselves: these are numerous peoples who are composed of three very distinct species or varieties, of blacks, of swarthy people, and of whites. The men of the last two species have features as fine as the peoples of Europe, although placed almost beneath the equator [77].

The black peoples who inhabit several islands of the great Ocean are not all in the same latitude; the features of some approach more than the features of others the characteristics that are believed to be more particular to the Ethiopian species; but these features are no more pronounced among those who are closest to the equator than among those who are most distant from it; we have seen, on the contrary, that the inhabitants of Van Diemen's Island have the woolly hair of Negroes, while those of New Holland, placed in a hotter climate, have long and smooth hair; the inhabitants of New Caledonia, although closer to the equator than those of Van Diemen's Island by about twenty-one degrees, and appearing, by the color and nature of their hair, to belong to the same species, are well-made, strong, and robust, and have, for the most part, more regular features [78]; while those of the New Hebrides, who are advanced only two degrees more than those of New Caledonia, are small, have long and slender arms and legs, a broad and flat nose, prominent cheekbones, a very short and sometimes extremely compressed forehead, and resemble monkeys [79]; the inhabitants of the Solomon Islands have less irregular features, although placed in a more ardent climate [80]; finally, the inhabitants of the Admiralty Islands differ little from Europeans in physiognomy, although by the nature of their hair and the color of their complexion, they belong to the Negro species [81].

It results from these facts that the peoples classed under the denomination of Ethiopian species or variety are subdivided into a very great number of varieties, which differ considerably from one another; that, if the color that is common to all exists independently of the cold or heat they experience, the other features that characterize them are equally independent of the climate; that, consequently, natural history furnishes no reason to believe that these peoples have a common origin, I do not say with the individuals of the Caucasian, Mongolian, American, or Malay species, but even with the tribes of Negroes who populate Africa. These peoples who are spread over the great Ocean, and who are found equally black in all degrees of latitude, differ not only from the peoples of the Malay species in the midst of whom they live, by color, hair, and the proportions of the body; they differ from them above all by language, by usages, by customs, by the degree of civilization. Although often very close to one another, they appear never to have had any communication together; while at first glance one recognizes the inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands, those of New Zealand, those of Easter Island, and those of the island of Sumatra as belonging to the same species, although the first are distant from the second by sixty degrees or eleven hundred leagues, and the third are separated from the fourth by a distance of one hundred and fifty degrees, nearly half the circumference of the earth.

The peoples of the American species differ from one another by a more or less dark tint, by a more or less tall stature, and above all by language; but in all other respects, there exists between them such a great resemblance that, according to Ulloa, when one has seen an Indian from any country whatsoever, one can say that one has seen them all [82]. M. de Humboldt found exaggeration in this assertion on the similarity of forms; but he was nevertheless struck by the family resemblance that exists among all these peoples, whatever the climate under which they live. Over one and a half million square leagues, he says, from the islands of Tierra del Fuego to the Saint Lawrence River and the Bering Strait, one is struck at first glance by the resemblance that the features of the inhabitants present. One believes one recognizes that all descend from the same stock, despite the enormous difference of languages, and the distance that separates them from one another [83]. This family resemblance must indeed be striking, since in reading the diverse accounts of voyages made on the coasts or in the interior of this continent, one finds that all travelers have attributed to the natives nearly the same characteristics [84].

The copper-colored peoples spread over the surface of the American continent inhabit all zones, from the torrid zone to the glacial zone; yet their features, like their color, remain invariable. The variations that it is possible to perceive among them have no relation to the more or less heat they experience. It is not, therefore, to the heat of the climate that it is possible to attribute the differences one observes between the men of the copper-colored species and the men of the other species. Since the Europeans established themselves on the American continent, and have brought there men of the Ethiopian species, the Americans have not become more similar to the men of these two species, than the latter have become similar to the Americans. Each species, if it has not been modified by interbreeding, has conserved all the characteristics that are proper to it.The peoples of the Malay species are those who, by their physical constitution, most approach the individuals of the Caucasian species. The variations observed among them relate particularly, like those we have observed among the peoples of the American species, to height, and to the complexion that some have a little darker than others. The features vary from one individual to another as among Europeans; but the differences that exist between them have no relation to the temperature of the climate. In New Zealand, on Easter Island, and in the Marquesas Islands, one finds equally individuals who have European features and black, brown, straight, and curly hair. According to one traveler, the face of the inhabitants of Easter Island differs from that of Europeans only in color, and the women lack only the complexion to be beautiful, in the sense that we attach to this word [85]. The inhabitants of the Marquesas Islands, much closer to the equator, differ from them and from those of New Zealand only by a greater regularity in their features. They have a long and beautifully shaped neck, beautiful large and black eyes, beautiful teeth, and all parts of the body well proportioned. The women, says Krusenstern, are in general very beautiful; their head above all is admirable; they have it well proportioned; the face rather round than oval, large brilliant eyes, a blooming complexion, very beautiful teeth, and hair that curls naturally [86]. These peoples are at exactly the same latitude as the Negroes of the Solomon Islands.

None of the species we have observed, therefore, deviates from the features that distinguish them, either by artificial means, such as paints, compressions, mutilations, or by the means of cold or heat; in all latitudes and at all degrees of elevation, individuals transmit to their descendants the distinctive characteristics of their particular species. The sciences have not taught us, and probably they will never teach us, whether the principal races we know belong to as many primitive species, or whether they are derived from a single species. They can still less teach us whether the single species that one might suppose to have existed was similar to such a species that we know rather than to such another; whether, for example, the Ethiopians are degenerated Caucasians, or whether the Caucasians are Negroes whom a whim of nature has made white. Naturalists divide all other genera of animals into several species and take little trouble to persuade us that all the species they class under the same genus are or are not derived from a single one. They find in the variations they observe among certain domestic animals, such as cats, dogs, rabbits, and donkeys, reasons to believe in the unity of the human race. But he who would seek in other animals, in monkeys, for example, reasons to believe in the plurality of species among men, would seem to them a bad reasoner. Even those who do not admit that questions of natural history or astronomy can always be well resolved by theological knowledge, cannot resolve to be ignorant of what the sciences cannot teach them. Their pride revolts at the thought that the human race could have been composed of as many primitive species as we count varieties; and that their species, unique in the universe, did not give birth to all the others.

In expounding the physical characteristics that are particular to each race, and in examining whether these characteristics were produced by artificial means or by the influence of climates, I have not proposed to investigate whether there existed several primitive species, or whether there existed only a single one. This question, which I do not believe susceptible to being resolved by the natural sciences, and which consequently is not, in my eyes, a philosophical question, is foreign to the object I propose. What I want is to investigate whether the men of all races are equally susceptible to perfection; whether the same causes produce on all of them similar effects, or whether they can arrive at the same results by the same means; it is to investigate particularly what are the effects that result from the domination of one species over another, from the mixture of several on the same territory, and above all from their interbreeding.

This question of the mixture of species, and of the domination of some over others, would perhaps be of little importance if the earth had remained divided among them according to the laws that nature herself seemed to have established; if the peoples of the copper-colored species had conserved the exclusive possession of the American continent; if the peoples of the Mongolian species had not disturbed each other in the possession of their territories, and above all if they had never crossed the frontiers of Asia; if the peoples of the Malay species had never been troubled in the possession of the islands of the great Ocean; if the Ethiopian species had remained the exclusive master of Africa; finally, if the Caucasian species, master of Europe, had never left it and had never been troubled there.

But the Mongols, from the center of Asia, have overflowed on all sides and have gone as far as their horses could carry them: not only have they brought their domination to all the other peoples who belong to the same species as themselves; they have brought it even among the peoples of the Caucasian species and have blended with them. The peoples of the Caucasian species in their turn, at the same time as they have sought to dominate one another, have spread over all parts of the earth, and have mixed with the peoples of all the other species. In Africa, they have established their domination on the coasts of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, on the banks of the Senegal, at the Cape of Good Hope, on the Mozambique Channel, and in the neighboring islands. In Asia, they have mixed with the Persians, they have established themselves in Hindustan and in the innumerable islands that are found between New Holland and the Asian continent. There one finds united on the same soil Negroes, Mongols, Malays, and Caucasians, each having their color, their physiognomy, their customs, their language, their belief. In the great Ocean their domination is already felt by their establishment on the island of Van Diemen, in New Holland, and in the Sandwich Islands, and there is no doubt that they will end by mixing with the peoples of the Malay species.

But, of all the mixtures of species, the most important and the most worthy of observation is that which, for more than three centuries, has been taking place on the continent and on the islands of America. The peoples of the Caucasian species, such as the French, the English, the Dutch, the Spanish, and the Portuguese, have not confined themselves to establishing themselves on the lands already occupied by the peoples of the copper-colored species, from Canada to the pampas of Buenos Aires; they have transported to the same soil multitudes of individuals of the Ethiopian species, and several of the Malay species. The peoples of the copper-colored species who are found in the north of North America cannot greatly complicate the state of the Caucasian species, for their number is diminishing in a perceptible manner. But it is not the same for the peoples of the Ethiopian species who are found in the islands or in the southern part of the United States; their number, far from decreasing, multiplies on the contrary in a greater proportion than that in which the Europeans multiply. In South America and at the southern extremity of North America, the individuals of the copper-colored species, already very numerous, have multiplied since the conquest. The mixture of these peoples with Europeans, Negroes, and Malays has produced new varieties, and the population of this part of the world presents phenomena of which the state of Europe can give us no idea. [87]

As long as America was considered only as a vast estate exploited for the profit of Europeans, it is natural that the facts that took place on that continent and that had no relation to commerce should have little fixed the attention of observers. But all is much changed since North America has had its independence recognized, since it has established forms of government foreign to Europeans, and since South America has followed its example. Europe, by its customs, its knowledge, its arts, its riches, in a word its civilization, still holds the first rank in the world; but, when one considers the position, the extent, the fertility of the American continent, the number and extent of the lakes it possesses, the immense rivers and streams that water it, the variety and richness of the products of its agriculture, and the nature of its institutions, one can foresee that a time will come when the relative importance of the peoples of Europe will have greatly diminished. It is therefore not unworthy of the moral sciences to occupy themselves with the phenomena that this country offers them.

The object of this research on the mixture of races and on the domination of some over others is to know what are the effects that this domination and this mixture produce on the physical constitution and on the intellectual and moral faculties of the whole of the population that results from it. But, to evaluate these effects, it is necessary to distinguish them from those that have been attributed to causes over which the will of man has less influence, I mean climate, places, and the course of waters.

We have seen, in this chapter, that none of the characteristics that distinguish the species from one another are produced either by climate or by any artificial means. But, although climate produces no deviation in the species, one can conceive that it could diminish or increase the physical forces of individuals, weaken or strengthen their intellectual faculties, irritate or calm their passions, without making them lose any of the characteristics that are proper to their species. I will examine this question in expounding what is the influence that the things by which men are everywhere surrounded exercise on the prosperity and decadence of nations, whatever moreover the species to which they belong.