George Robbins Gliddon (1809 – November 16, 1857) was an English-born American
Egyptologist
Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious ...
.
Biography
![Races and skulls](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Races_and_skulls.png)
He was born in
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
shire, England. His father, a merchant, was United States consul at
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
where Gliddon was taken at an early age. He had a younger brother, William Alfred Gliddon (b.1819, Cairo) who worked for a short time in
Borneo
Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...
and supplied some skulls from there.
Gliddon became United States vice-consul and took a great interest in
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
ian antiquities. Subsequently, he lectured in the United States and succeeded in attracting attention to the subject of
Egyptology
Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious ...
. His chief work was ''Ancient Egypt'' (1850, ed. 1853). He wrote also ''Memoir on the Cotton of Egypt'' (1841); ''Appeal to the Antiquaries of Europe on the Destruction of the Monuments of Egypt'' (1841); ''Discourses on Egyptian Archaeology'' (1849); ''Types of Mankind'' (1854), in conjunction with
J. C. Nott; and ''Indigenous Races of the Earth'' (1857), also in conjunction with Nott and others.
Gliddon was influenced by
Samuel George Morton
Samuel George Morton (January 26, 1799 – May 15, 1851) was an American physician, natural scientist, and writer who argued against the single creation story of the Bible, monogenism, instead supporting a theory of multiple racial creations, poly ...
's
craniometry
Craniometry is measurement of the cranium (the main part of the skull), usually the human cranium. It is a subset of cephalometry, measurement of the head, which in humans is a subset of anthropometry, measurement of the human body. It is dis ...
and
polygenist
Polygenism is a theory of human origins which posits the view that the human races are of different origins (''polygenesis''). This view is opposite to the idea of monogenism, which posits a single origin of humanity. Modern scientific views no ...
theory of human origins. Morton collected hundreds of human skulls from around the world and tried to classify them. Morton claimed that he could judge the intellectual capacity of a race by the
cranial capacity
The size of the brain is a frequent topic of study within the fields of anatomy, biological anthropology, animal science and evolution. Brain size is sometimes measured by weight and sometimes by volume (via MRI scans or by skull volume). Neur ...
(the measure of the volume of the interior of the skull). In Morton's theory, a large skull meant a large brain and high intellectual capacity, and a small skull indicated a small brain and decreased intellectual capacity. By studying these skulls he claimed that the evidence supported polygenism, that each race had a separate origin. Morton had many skulls from
Ancient Egypt, and concluded that the ancient Egyptians were not African, but were instead
Caucasians.
Morton's followers, particularly Gliddon and
Josiah Nott
Josiah Clark Nott (March 31, 1804March 31, 1873) was an American surgeon and anthropologist. He is known for his studies into the etiology (medicine), etiology of yellow fever and malaria, including Germ theory of disease, the theory that they o ...
in their monumental tribute to Morton's work, ''Types of Mankind'' (1854), carried Morton's ideas further and backed up Morton's findings which supported the notion of
polygenism
Polygenism is a theory of human origins which posits the view that the human races are of different origins (''polygenesis''). This view is opposite to the idea of monogenism, which posits a single origin of humanity. Modern scientific views no ...
, which contends that humanity originates from different lineages and is the ancestor of the
multiregional hypothesis The multiregional hypothesis, multiregional evolution (MRE), or polycentric hypothesis is a scientific model that provides an alternative explanation to the more widely accepted "Out of Africa" model of monogenesis for the pattern of human evoluti ...
.
Gliddon collaborated with Morton on several published works; they shared many views on human races. Morton had sent Gliddon over 100 Egyptian crania specimens. Gliddon was a popular lecturer and researcher on Egyptology and from his studies of ancient Egyptian monuments and hieroglyphics, he concluded that the Egyptians had been white, and that even in the ancient world there had been distinctly different races. He posited that Whites and Negroes had never changed their racial appearance and features. He believed that neither environment or climate could change a race into another. He rejected
Monogenesis, and claimed that the Bible supported Polygenisis. Gliddon believed the differences of the races had been impressed upon them by the Creator himself since the beginning.
George Robbins Gliddon died of Yellow Fever on November 16, 1857, in
Panama
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...
. He was buried in Panama but later re-interred in Philadelphia at
Laurel Hill Cemetery
Laurel Hill Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia. Founded in 1836, it was the second major rural cemetery in the United States after Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts.
The cemetery is ...
at the instigation of his friend, archaeologist
E. G. Squier
Ephraim George Squier (June 17, 1821 – April 17, 1888), usually cited as E. G. Squier, was an American archaeologist, history writer, painter and newspaper editor.
Biography
Squier was born in Bethlehem, New York, the son of a minister, Joel S ...
.
[Squier,E.G. (1877) Peru: Incidents and Explorations in the Land of the Incas, pp.17-19]
Bibliography
''Types of Mankind''preserved at the
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
''Indigenous Races of the Earth''preserved at the
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
See also
*
Scientific racism
Scientific racism, sometimes termed biological racism, is the pseudoscience, pseudoscientific belief that empirical evidence exists to support or justify racism (racial discrimination), racial inferiority, or racial superiority.. "Few tragedies ...
*
Craniometry
Craniometry is measurement of the cranium (the main part of the skull), usually the human cranium. It is a subset of cephalometry, measurement of the head, which in humans is a subset of anthropometry, measurement of the human body. It is dis ...
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gliddon, George Robbins
1809 births
1857 deaths
American Christian creationists
American Egyptologists
American expatriates in Egypt
British emigrants to the United States
Burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia)
Race and intelligence controversy
Proponents of scientific racism