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Science 5 May 1978:
Vol. 200. no. 4341, pp. 503 - 509
DOI: 10.1126/science.347573
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Articles

Science, Vol 200, Issue 4341, 503-509
Copyright © 1978 by American Association for the Advancement of Science

articles

Morton's ranking of races by cranial capacity. Unconscious manipulation of data may be a scientific norm

SJ Gould

Samuel George Morton, self-styled objective empiricist, amassed the world's largest pre-Darwinian collection of human skulls. He measured their capacity and produced the results anticipated in an age when few Caucasians doubted their innate superiority: whites above Indians, blacks at the bottom. Morton published all his raw data, and it is shown here that his summary tables are based on a patchwork of apparently unconscious finagling. When his data are properly reinterpreted, all races have approximately equal capacities. Unconscious or dimly perceived finagling is probably endemic in science, since scientists are human beings rooted in cultural contexts, not automatons directed toward external truth.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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The Bell Curve Case for Heredity.
M. Hocutt and M. Levin (1999)
Philosophy of the Social Sciences 29, 389-415
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J. P. Rushton's Aggregational Errors in Racial Psychology.
Z. Z. Cemovsky (1993)
Journal of Black Psychology 19, 282-289
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Intrinsic Social and Political Bias in the History of American Physical Anthropology: With Special Reference to the Work of Ales Hrdlicka.
M. L. Blakey (1987)
Critique of Anthropology 7, 7-35
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