“Nordics” and “Hamites”: Joseph Deniker and the Rise (and Fall) of Scientific Racism
- First Online: 27 April 2017
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- Nigel Eltringham 4
Part of the book series: Palgrave Critical Studies of Antisemitism and Racism ((PCSAR))
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The “Hamite” as “Caucasian” civilizers of Central Africa was central to colonial discourse in Rwanda-Urundi in the first half of the twentieth century and the notion of Rwandan Tutsi as “Hamitic invaders” was to return as a component in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The idea of an exogenous, Hamitic aristocracy in East and Central Africa is pronounced in the writings (from 1913) of Charles Seligman (1873–1940) in which “race” infers biogenetic superiority. Seligman drew on the work of the Italian anthropologist Guisseppe Sergi (1841–1936) who, in turn, drew on the work of the French anthropologist Joseph Deniker (1852–1918). Another key racial theory of the early twentieth century implicated in genocide can also be traced to Deniker. In The Myth of the Twentieth Century (1930), the Nazi race theorist Alfred Rosenberg adopted “Nordic” (as Aryan) from Madison Grant’s The Passing of the Great Race (1916), who had, in turn adopted “Nordic Race” from William Z. Ripley’s The Races of Europe (1899). Ripley had adopted “Nordic” from Deniker. In other words, fantasies of both the “Hamite” and the “Aryan” as biogenetically superior races can both be traced to Deniker. And yet, notions of racial (biogenetic) superiority are entirely absent from Deniker who did not associate any intellectual or “cultural” superiority with any of his “races.” Contrary to the idea of a progression from early twentieth-century writings espousing “biogenetic” racial superiority to our contemporary rejection of racial determinism, there was, in reality, a regression from Deniker’s late nineteenth-century position.
A part of this chapter originally appeared in Nigel Eltringham, “‘Invaders who have stolen the country’: The Hamitic Hypothesis, Race and the Rwandan Genocide,” Social Identities 12 (2006): 425–444. See http://www.tandfonline.com .
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Eltringham, N. (2017). “Nordics” and “Hamites”: Joseph Deniker and the Rise (and Fall) of Scientific Racism. In: Morris-Reich, A., Rupnow, D. (eds) Ideas of 'Race' in the History of the Humanities. Palgrave Critical Studies of Antisemitism and Racism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49953-6_10
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- History in Africa
The "Hamitic Hypothesis" in Indigenous West African Historical Thought
- African Studies Association
- Volume 36, 2009
- pp. 293-314
- 10.1353/hia.2010.0004
- View Citation
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Charles Gabriel Seligman and the Hamitic Hypothesis
Charles Gabriel Seligman (1873 – 1940), image: William Rothsteinעברית: ויליאם רוטשטיין, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
On December 24 , 1873 , British physician and ethnologist Charles Gabriel Seligman was born. Seligman ‘s main ethnographic work described the culture of the Vedda people of Sri Lanka and the Shilluk people of the Sudan . He was a proponent of the Hamitic hypothesis , according to which, some civilizations of Africa were thought to have been founded by Caucasoid Hamitic peoples.
Charles Gabriel Seligman – Background
Seligman was born into a middle class Jewish family in London, UK, the only son of wine merchant Hermann Seligmann and his wife Olivia (Charles shortened his name to Seligman after 1914). His interests in natural science became early manifest: while still at a preparatory school, he began to collect butterflies and, at the house of a boy friend, carried out chemical experiments.[3] He studied medicine at St Thomas’ Hospital.Charles Gabriel Seligman studied medicine at St Thomas’ Hospital. He later worked as a physician and pathologist and then served the 1898 Cambridge University expedition to the Torres Strait. Later expedition included New Guinea, Ceylon, and Sudan. Seligman served as chair of Ethnology at the London School of Economics from 1913 to 1934.
Ethnographic Work in Africa
Charles Seligman is probably best known for his ethnographic work on the races of Africa. He recognized four major distinct races of the African continent: Bushmanoids (Bushmen), Pygmies, Negroids, and Caucasoids (Hamites). Further, the Hottentots, according to Seligman are a mixture of Bushmanoid, Negroid and Hamitic. As a staunch proponent of the Hamitic theory, in his work Seligman asserts that Hamitic Caucasoid North and Northeast Africans were responsible for introducing non-Semitic Afro-Asiatic languages (Berber-Cushitic-Egyptian) into Africa, as well as civilization, technology and all significant cultural developments.
He did acknowledge varying degrees of Negroid admixture amongst the Hamitic groups, but emphasized throughout his major works the essential racial and cultural unity of the various Hamitic peoples. In his Some Aspects of the Hamitic Problem in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (1913), he wrote that the Northern and Eastern Hamitic “ groups shade into each other, and in many parts a Negro admixture has taken place, nevertheless, culturally if not always physically, either division stands apart from its fellow .”
The Hamites in general, and the Northern Hamites in particular, he asserted, have close “ kinship with the European representatives of the Mediterranean race “. Drawing from Coon, Seligman also discusses fairer features observed amongst a minority of Berbers or Northern Hamites, such as lighter skin, golden beards and blue eyes. Races of Africa, however, notably questions the belief held by some anthropologists in the early 20th century that these fairer traits, such as blondism, were introduced by a Nordic variety. Seligman’s most famous work Races of Africa is regarded the first major published work in English on the ethnography of Africa, widely regarded as an “ethnological classic”.
Selected works:
- Melanesians of British New Guinea (1910)
- The Veddas (1911) with Brenda Seligman
- Some Aspects of the Hamitic Problem in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (1913)
- Races of Africa (1930, 1939,1957,1966)
- The Pagan Tribes of Nilotic Sudan (London: Routledge, 1932) with Brenda Seligman
References and Further Reading:
- [1] Charles Seligman Short Biographical and Works at Britannica
- [2] Charles Seligman Biographical at the Royal Society
- [3] Myers, C. S. (1941). “ Charles Gabriel Seligman. 1873–1940 “ . Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society . 3 (10): 627–646.
- [4] Catalogue of the Seligman papers at the Archives Division of the London School of Economics.
- [5] C. G. Seligman, The Races of Africa , London, 1930
- [6] Charles Seligman at Wikidata
- [7] A Theory You’ve Never Heard Of | Michael Robinson | TEDxUniversityofHartford , TEDx Talks @ youtube
- [8] Timeline of British Ethnologists , via Wikidata and DBpedia
Tabea Tietz
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The Hamitic hypothesis reached its apogee in the work of C. G. Seligman, who argued in his book The Races of Africa (1930) that: Apart from relatively late Semitic influence... the civilizations of Africa are the civilizations of the Hamites, its history is the record of these peoples and of their interaction with the two other African stocks ...
This hypothesis was preceded by another elaborate Hamitic theory. The earlier theory, which gained currency in the sixteenth century, was that the Hamites were black savages, 'natural slaves'—and Negroes. This identification of the Hamite with the Negro, a view which persisted throughout the eighteenth century, served as a rationale for ...
Other articles where Hamitic hypothesis is discussed: western Africa: Muslims in western Africa: …thus evolved the so-called "Hamitic hypothesis," by which it was generally supposed that any progress and development among agricultural Blacks was the result of conquest or infiltration by pastoralists from northern or northeastern Africa.
The Hamitic Hypothesis was still popular in the 1960s and late 1970s and was supported notably by Anthony John Arkell and George Peter Murdock. [318] [319] At the UNESCO "Symposium on the Peopling of Ancient Egypt and the Deciphering of the Meroitic Script" in Cairo in 1974, none of the participants explicitly voiced support for any theory ...
THE HAMITIC HYPOTHESIS stressed the punishment suffered by Ham's descendants, thus reinforcing the myth in modern times.6 Some seventeenth-century writers7 acquaint us with notions current in their time by citing European authors, known or unknown today, who wrote, directly or indirectly, about the low position of Negro-Hamites in the world.
Hamitic. Hamitic theory is a theory that claims that so called hamitic race is superior to the negroid races on the African continent. John Hanning Speke started the theory. Karl Richard Lepsius and Carl Meinhof extended the theory: they used languages to classify people into hamitic or non-hamitic; this is no longer done today.
68 Zachernuk, , " Johnson," 40 - 41 Google Scholar, argues that rudimentary versions of the "Hamitic" theory of Yoruba origins can already be found in Bowen, T.J., Adventures and Missionary Labours in Several Countries in the Interior of Africa from 1849 to 1856 (Charleston, 1857)Google Scholar, and Burton, Richard F., Abeokuta and the Camaroons Mountains (2 vols.: London, 1863).
The Hamitic hypothesis states that everything of value ever found in Africa was brought there by the Hamites, allegedly a branch of the Caucasian race. This hypothesis was preceded by an earlier theory, in the 16th century, that the Hamites were black savages, 'natural slaves' - and Negroes. This view, which persisted throughout the 18th ...
THE HAMITIC MYTH REVISITED - The Lost White Tribe: Explorers, Scientists, and the Theory that Changed a Continent. By Michael F. Robinson . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. Pp. xiii + 306. $29.95, hardback (ISBN 9780199978489). - Volume 58 Issue 3
Less prominent in accounts of these genocides is the fact that the two terms, "Nordic" and "Hamite," are linked by the work of the French anthropologist Joseph Deniker (1852-1918). Although Deniker defined racial "types," he asserted that race was solely a matter of physical characteristics rather than intellect or character. 4.
II. The concept of the "Hamitic hypothesis" appears to have been coined by the historian St Clair Drake, in 1959. 3 In the historiography of Africa, it has conventionally been employed as a label for the view that important elements in the cultures of sub-Saharan Africa, and more especially elaborated [End Page 293] state structures, were the creation of people called "Hamites," who were ...
The term "Hamitic" comes from the biblical figure Ham. In the Book of Genesis, Noah exited the ark with three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. One day, Noah became drunk and fell asleep naked inside his tent. Ham mistakenly discovered his father's nakedness, and then ran to tell his brothers about it.
On December 24, 1873, British physician and ethnologist Charles Gabriel Seligman was born. Seligman 's main ethnographic work described the culture of the Vedda people of Sri Lanka and the Shilluk people of the Sudan.He was a proponent of the Hamitic hypothesis, according to which, some civilizations of Africa were thought to have been founded by Caucasoid Hamitic peoples.
The Hamitic Hypothesis: Its Origin and Function in Time Perspective. Apparatus for augmenting the pressure of a gas stored in a container and for releasing the stored gas on command. First and second ignitable, pressure augmenting compositions are stored within the container, the first composition being ignited under a first predetermined set ...
The use in genocidal propaganda of a modified 'Hamitic Hypothesis' (the assertion that African 'civilisation' was due to racially distinct Caucasoid invaders from the north/north-east of Africa) has become a key feature of commentary on the 1994 Rwandan genocide. In order to historicise the Hypothesis, the article first traces the ...
The Hamitic myth exploded: modern findings have refuted a once-prevalent theory on the peopling of the African continent. article. Person as author. Olderogge, Dmitri A. In. The UNESCO Courier: a window open on the world, XXXII, 8/9, p. 24-26, illus. Language. English; Arabic;
The "Hamitic Hypothesis" in Indigenous West African Historical Thought. This paper explores the use of versions of the "Hamitic hypothesis" by West African historians, with principal reference to amateur scholars rather than to academic historiography. Although some reference is made to other areas, the main focus is on the Yoruba, of ...
The concept of the "Hamitic hypothesis" appears to have been coined by. the historian St Clair Drake, in 1959.3 In the historiography of Africa, it has. conventionally been employed as a label for the view that important ele- ments in the cultures of sub-Saharan Africa, and more especially elaborated.
The dynastic race theory was the earliest thesis to attempt to explain how predynastic Egypt developed into the sophisticated monarchy of Dynastic Egypt.The theory holds that the earliest roots of the ancient Egyptian dynastic civilisation were imported by invaders from Mesopotamia who then founded the First Dynasty and brought culture to the indigenous population.
The Misri legend is an origin myth common to a number of East African communities. In it, it is usually claimed that the community originated in a land called Misri located in the North of African continent. This land is in many accounts identified or associated with Egypt and sometimes an association with one of the lost tribes of Israel is implied and occasionally directly stated.