Whites, Blacks, and Apes in the Great Chain of Being

[cinnabonbon]

The predominant colonial theory of race was the great chain of being, the idea that human races could be lined up from most superior to most inferior. That is, God, white people, and then an arrangement of non-white people, with blacks at the bottom.

The theorization of the great chain of being was not just for “science” or “fun.” It was a central tool in justifying efforts to colonize, enslave, and even exterminate people. If it could be established that certain kinds of people were indeed less than, even less than human, then it was acceptable to treat them as such.

This is a “generalizable tactic of oppression,” by the way. During the period of intense anti-Irish sentiment in the U.S. and Britain, the Irish were routinely compared to apes as well.

Connections have been drawn between black people and primates for hundreds of years. Whatever else you want to think about modern instances of this association – the one Wade and her child are suffering now, but also the Obama sock monkey, the Black Lil’ Monkey doll, and a political cartoon targeting Obama – objections are not just paranoia.

from: http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/07/12/whites-blacks-apes-in-the-great-chain-of-being/
http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/01/28/irish-apes-tactics-of-de-humanization/

This thread is not to say that humans aren't a part of the "ape family"/hominids. However, calling (and comparing!) certain parts of the human race to apes has very negative historical associations linked to it, and we should all be aware of what we're doing when we're flirting with racist and classist stereotypes.

[Shivering Jemmy]

1. The solution is to acknowledge that we are all equally apes.

[cinnabonbon]

2. Or call the whole thing "hominids"

so we avoid the word with cultural baggage.

[Shivering Jemmy]

3. If you like

That might help us treat our other primate relatives a bit better.

[cinnabonbon]

4. I wouldn't be opposed to that at all.

We treat our cousins terribly unfairly.

[dawg]

5. This is a very sensitive matter.

Humans went through a severe population bottleneck around 75,000 years ago. We are *all* descended from a small population of survivors. We are all African. As a species, we have very little genetic diversity.

Because all whites and asians are descended from a relatively small number of individuals, perhaps only one or two bands who wandered away from the continent shortly after the bottleneck event, what little variation we do have as a species exists primarily among the descendants of those who remained in Africa.

Because of this, one African person can be much more genetically different from another African person than they are from me, despite my pale skin.

[cinnabonbon]

6. That is all true.

It looks to me that when people try to create a distance between White and Other, it is only based on cultural things, not actual science. If we used science properly, we would see that we're all human beings, despite small differences on the outside.

In any case, if a certain group has been called ape in a demeaning way, I can understand them refusing to accept the term if it's forced on them. It's dehumanizing.

[AngryAmish]

7. Well there is some neanderthal and devosonian in the hopper also

Plus a third hominid that we know nothing about.

[dawg]

8. About that third hominid ....

[cinnabonbon]

12. ...

[BainsBane]

9. using pseudoscience to justify racism is no different

from using it to justify sexism.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

11. a lot of overlap in the two, yes.

[bettyellen]

15. and we are talking about people who use the free speech dodge to say

c$@t and b*$#h, but would not dare using racial slurs. They know better than to try that "free speech" "words don't hurt bullshit" in a racist way here. It's a game to see how much privilege they have left here.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

10. du rec

[TheBlackAdder]

13. The "Great Chain" was introduced by Alexander Pope "An Essay on Man". Race Not Involved In It!

.

Alexander Pope's "An Essay on Man" introduced the concept of the "Great Chain" where man is just link in a chain that can be broken by the extermination of one of the other living chains. If another species is killed off, the chain will break causing all other forms to perish--as they are all dependent on each other. God and angles are above, lesser animals are below.

There is no mention of race in the original "Great Chain".

Any use of the concept of this chain, it a perversion of the author's original intent and steals his idea for perverted purposes.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Essay_on_Man

[cinnabonbon]

14. Thank you for the clarification

I am afraid that it was perverted to serve an agenda, just like you said. It is not the first scientific discovery to have been abused in this way to further a racist agenda, but it's just as galling whenever it happens.