Page 29 - The Disasters Darwinism Brought To Humanity

S
I
C
A

M
A
'
N
I
R

S
N
L
A
I
M
S
I
N
C

D
O
L
O
W
R
A
D D A R W I N ' S R A C I S M A N D C O L O N I A L I S M 29
saw as "inferior," he maintained that it was essential to prevent them mul-
tiplying and so for these races to be brought to extinction. So the traces of
racism and discrimination which we still come across in our time were
approved and lent justification by Darwin in this way.
As for the task befalling the "civilised person," according to Darwin's
racist idea, it was to speed this evolutionary period up a little, as we shall
see in the details which follow. In this situation there was no objection,
from the "scientific" point of view, to these races, which were going to dis-
appear anyway, being done away with now.
Darwin's racist side showed its effect in much of his writing and
observations. For example, he openly set out his racist prejudices while
describing the natives of Tierra del Fuego whom he saw on a long voyage
he set out on in 1871. He described the natives as living creatures "whol-
ly nude, submerged in dyes, eating what they find just like wild animals,
uncontrolled, cruel to everybody out of their tribe, taking pleasure in tor-
turing their enemies, offering bloddy sacrifices, killing their children, ill-
treating their wives, full of awkward superstitions". Whereas the
researcher W. P. Snow, who had travelled the same region ten years
before, presents a very different picture. According to Snow, the Tierra del
Fuegians were "fine powerful
looking fellows; they were
The South Atlantic very fond of their children;
Ocean
some of their artefacts
were ingenious; they
recognised some
sort of rights over
property; and they
accepted the
Southern Ocean
authority of sever-
The journeys Darwin embarked on al of the oldest
revealed his racist side. For exam- women." 10
ple, Darwin considered the term
As has been seen from
"wild animals" suitable for tribes
whose culture and abilities other these examples Darwin was a
researchers had discussed.