Charles Davenport approached his eugenics studies by applying Mendelian inheritance to human behavior traits
At the beginning of the 1900s, Andrew Carnegie had funded Charles Davenport to establish eugenics educational programs in the U.S.. Davenport approached his study of human inheritance with a Mendelian understanding of genetics (Mendelian inheritance), and applied this Mendelian model to complex behavioral traits in humans, each trait said to be controlled by a single gene. Again, genetic theories of medical or mental conditions can enable people or society to absolve themselves from responsibility. Moreover, he was particularly intent on proving that immigrants and societal misfits were genetically inferior, and soon he was confidently writing that people could inherit genes for “nomadism,” “shiftlessness,” and “insincerity.” Immigrants from Italy, Greece, Hungary, and other Southeastern European countries had germ plasm that made them “more given to crimes of larceny, kidnapping, assault, murder, rape and sex-immorality.” Jews inherited genes for “thieving” and “prostitution.”
References
- Whitaker, Robert. (2002). Mad in America Chapter 3. UNFIT TO BREED (p. 76). New York, NY: Basic Books.
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Type:🔴 Tags: Biology / Psychiatry Status:☀️