Page 37 - The Disasters Darwinism Brought To Humanity

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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 37
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over its own territory. The collapse in society soon reached serious dimen-
sions. The prohibition of opium, which the Chinese government had to
implement after a long period of doubt, led to the first Opium War (1838-
1842). There is no doubt that this war dragged the country to bankruptcy.
China was forced to bow its head because of the inadequacy of its army
in every confrontation with the foreign forces and to accept their ever-
growing demands. The Westerners slowly formed settlement centres
inside Chinese territory from the year 1842. They took large port quarters
(concessions) from out of the hands of the Chinese, rented their fields, and
obliged the country to open up to the outside world in a way that would
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P PILTDOWN MAN FORGERY
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O O ne of the most interesting indica- That is why the dis-
covery of Piltdown
tions of the inspiration the theory
of evolution offered to British man aroused great
imperialism, was the Piltdown man scan- excitement in Eng-
dal. land. Newspapers ran
In 1912, a strange skull was found in Pilt- headlines and crowds joyously celebrated
down, England. Charles Dawson, the sci- the discovery. The British government, on
entist who found the skull together with the other hand, granted a knighthood to
his team, declared that it belonged to a Arthur Keith for his famous discovery.
creature which was half ape-half human. The famous evolutionist palaeontologist,
Arthur Keith, the renowned evolutionist Don Johanson, describes the relationship
anatomist examined the fossil and con- between the Piltdown fossil and English
firmed the results. imperialism:
However, Dawson and Keith emphasised The Piltdown discovery was very
an important point. The brain of the fossil eurocentric. Not only did the brain
was as big as that of modern man. The jaw- have pre-eminence, but the English
bone, however, had ape-like features. had pre-eminence, too.*
Suddenly the brain of Piltdown man
The inspiration the English derived from
became a matter of pride for the British.
Piltdown man lasted only until 1953, when
Since this skull was found in England, it
Kenneth Oakley, a scientist who re-exam-
had to be the ancestor of the British.
ined the fossil in detail, revealed it to be
According to the British people, the greater th
the greatest forgery of the 20 century. The
volume of the brain indicated that British
fossil had been produced by affixing an
had evolved before other races, and were
orang-utan jaw to a human skull.
thus superior to other races.
*Don Johanson, In Search of Human Origins,
1994 WGBH Educational Foundation