Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 85.djvu/151

Rh to feelings of antipathy, as when the color of the skin or the facial features of one ethnic stock are regarded as ugly, if not repulsive, by another, or when the odor of the skin of one ethnic type is unpleasant to another. But it is evident that in some, if not all, of these cases esthetic, and sometimes moral and religious, ideas as well are involved, so that these antipathies are due in part, and perhaps sometimes entirely, to cultural differences. It would, therefore, be difficult to say in the case of any one of these antipathies whether it would exist on the basis of the ethnic difference alone if the cultural differences were lacking.

It is now evident that this article must consist largely of a study of the degree and permanence of ethnic differences. Since our interest is mainly with respect to the future the discussion may take the form of an attempt to answer two questions. The first is as to whether ethnic differences are sufficiently great to keep the contrasted ethnic stocks permanently in different cultural statuses. The second is as to whether these differences are sufficiently great to prevent a final amalgamation of all the ethnic stocks. In a word it is a question of the possibility and probability of cultural and ethnic uniformity in the future.

There have been many theories as to the part played by ethnic characteristics in determining the culture of a people. At one extreme we find such a writer as Gobineau, who in his treatise on the inequality of the human races tried to prove that there is a great deal of difference between the ethnic stocks as to their capacity for culture. At the other extreme is Boas, who insists that there is practically no difference between the ethnic types in their capacity for culture. It is evident that many of the physical differences between the ethnic types do not imply mental differences. For example, color is in the truest sense only skin deep, and is a racial adaptation to climate. Stature, the shape of the nose, etc., do not in themselves involve specific mental characteristics. But great differences in the brain and the rest of the nervous system, and in certain other of the viscera, would necessarily involve important mental differences and therefore variation in the capacity for culture. Such differences would be in the instinctive, intellectual and emotional make-up of the representatives of the type. Let us see how probable it is that there are such great differences.

There is a certain amount of variation in the size of the brain between the different ethnic types, but it is not at all certain that this variation is sufficiently great to cause any material difference in mental characteristics. This is indicated by the fact that as great variation is to be found in the brains of the members of the most civilized peoples and even among the ablest representatives of these peoples. In the structure of the brain and of its cells, also, there is probably no great variation, though such variations would be of even greater significance than variations in size. In similar fashion, in the rest of the nervous