Did Darwin change his mind about the Fuegians?
Shocked by what he considered to be the savagery he encountered in Tierra del Fuego, Charles Darwin ranked the Fuegians lowest among the human races. An enduring story has it, however, that Darwin was later so impressed by the successes of missionaries there, and by the grandeur they discovered in the native tongue, that he changed his mind. This story has served diverse interests, religious and scientific. But Darwin in fact continued to view the Fuegians as he had from the start, as lowly but improvable. And while his case for their unity with the other human races drew on missionary evidence, that evidence concerned emotional expression, not language.
Radick
Gregory
G
Centre for History and Philosophy of Science, Department of Philosophy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK. G.M.Radick@leeds.ac.uk
D005075:Biological Evolution; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000266:history*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D007199:Indians, South American; D007802:Language; D066189:Missionaries; D012070:Religion and Science; D008921:Religious Missions / Q000266:history*; D006113:United Kingdom