TY - JOUR
TI - Between Biology and Culture. Polish Reflections on the Concept of Race in the Nineteenth Century
AU - Nowak, Joanna
AU - Wrzesińska, Katarzyna
TI - Between Biology and Culture. Polish Reflections on the Concept of Race in the Nineteenth Century
AB - 
	In the nineteenth century, the Polish reflection on race and derivative terms was strongly influenced by the Western thought. New achievements and terminology in the field of natural sciences were adopted. Gradually, there was a change of look at peoples, their origin and diversity. In the Enlightenment, while hierarchizing humankind, its biological variety was emphasized. The Romanticism focused on human culture and spirituality. The Positivism, in turn, based on the achievements of natural sciences, saw the basis for evaluation of human groups in biological criteria. The state of contemporary ideas and knowledge favoured the formulation of various racial theories, which also had their own political context. The analysis of Polish sources made it possible to show the specificity of the domestic view in this field. It was often critical, but also approving the division of humankind into lower and higher races. This resulted from the adoption of a Eurocentric point of view. Historiosophy, seeking factors determining a historical role of a given race, also contributed to the search for differences between the white nations of Europe.
VL - 2023
IS - 22 (2023)
PY - 2023
SN - 2451-3202
C1 - 2543-702X
SP - 343
EP - 377
DO - 10.4467/2543702XSHS.23.009.17700
UR - https://ejournals.eu/czasopismo/studia-historiae-scientiarum/artykul/between-biology-and-culture-polish-reflections-on-the-concept-of-race-in-the-nineteenth-century
KW - Polish science of the nineteenth century
KW - anthropology
KW - popularization of knowledge
KW - race
KW - racial theories
KW - tribe
KW - nation
KW - ethnicity