African-British Writings in the Eighteenth Century: The Politics of Race and ReasonThe eighteenth century was a time of great cultural change in Britain. It was a period marked by expeditions to the New World, Africa, and the Orient, and these voyages were reflected in the travel literature of the era. It was also a period in which seventeenth-century empiricism and the scientific method became dominant, and in which society became increasingly secular. Fundamental to the eighteenth-century worldview was the notion of the Great Chain of Being, in which all creatures and their Creator stood in a hierarchical relationship with one another. The years from 1660 to 1833 witnessed both Britain's participation in slavery and the appropriation of the Great Chain of Being by social anthropologists and political leaders. With the rise of the slave trade, blacks were brought to Britain against their will, where they were enslaved. At the same time, intellectuals of the period tried to place these slaves within the hierarchical frame provided by the Great Chain of Being. |
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... groups of descending order . For the first time , he identified these groups as Caucasian , Asiatic , American , Ethiopian , and Malay , and held the Caucasian to be the ideal race . He also accepted the widespread notion that the ...
... groups by using a nonhierarchical method . But though not divisible by racial hierarchies , the method by which they classified racial groups , nonetheless , did the pernicious work of reinforcing racist ideologies . François Bernier ...
... groups . Arguably , such an epistemological configuration depends upon the centrality of author , text , or reader . But it is precisely through outside intervention , via a conducive socioeconomical and political climate , that this ...
Contents
Enlightenment Humanism | 1 |
Perspectives on a Theological Chain | 31 |
Conclusion | 149 |
Copyright | |
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African-British Writings in the Eighteenth Century: The Politics of Race and ... Helena Woodard No preview available - 1999 |