Michael Keevak
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691140315
- eISBN:
- 9781400838608
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691140315.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
This chapter examines how the Mongolian race was perceived in nineteenth-century Western medicine. More specifically, it considers medical explanations for certain conditions deemed to be associated ...
More
This chapter examines how the Mongolian race was perceived in nineteenth-century Western medicine. More specifically, it considers medical explanations for certain conditions deemed to be associated with “Mongolian” bodies and endemic in, or in some way linked to, the race as a whole, including the “Mongolian eye,” the “Mongolian spot,” and “Mongolism” (now known as Down syndrome). The chapter argues that each of these “Mongolian” conditions became a way of distancing the Mongolian race from a white Western norm, since they were taken to be either characteristic of irregular East Asian bodies. It also contends that “Mongolianness” served as a rationale for racism just as much as the other way around.Less
This chapter examines how the Mongolian race was perceived in nineteenth-century Western medicine. More specifically, it considers medical explanations for certain conditions deemed to be associated with “Mongolian” bodies and endemic in, or in some way linked to, the race as a whole, including the “Mongolian eye,” the “Mongolian spot,” and “Mongolism” (now known as Down syndrome). The chapter argues that each of these “Mongolian” conditions became a way of distancing the Mongolian race from a white Western norm, since they were taken to be either characteristic of irregular East Asian bodies. It also contends that “Mongolianness” served as a rationale for racism just as much as the other way around.
Michael Keevak
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691140315
- eISBN:
- 9781400838608
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691140315.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
This book investigates when and how East Asians became yellow in the Western imagination. It follows a trajectory that emphasizes an important shift in thinking about race during the course of the ...
More
This book investigates when and how East Asians became yellow in the Western imagination. It follows a trajectory that emphasizes an important shift in thinking about race during the course of the eighteenth century, when new sorts of human taxonomies began to appear and new claims about the color of all human groups, including East Asians, were put forward. It also examines how the “yellow race” and “Mongolian” bodies became important subjects in nineteenth-century anthropology and medicine, respectively. “Mongolian” bodies, for example, were linked to certain conditions thought to be endemic in—or in some way associated with—the race as a whole, including the “Mongolian eye,” the “Mongolian spot,” and “Mongolism” (now known as Down syndrome). Finally, the book considers how the Far East came to be seen as a “yellow peril,” a term coined in 1895 and often attributed to Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.Less
This book investigates when and how East Asians became yellow in the Western imagination. It follows a trajectory that emphasizes an important shift in thinking about race during the course of the eighteenth century, when new sorts of human taxonomies began to appear and new claims about the color of all human groups, including East Asians, were put forward. It also examines how the “yellow race” and “Mongolian” bodies became important subjects in nineteenth-century anthropology and medicine, respectively. “Mongolian” bodies, for example, were linked to certain conditions thought to be endemic in—or in some way associated with—the race as a whole, including the “Mongolian eye,” the “Mongolian spot,” and “Mongolism” (now known as Down syndrome). Finally, the book considers how the Far East came to be seen as a “yellow peril,” a term coined in 1895 and often attributed to Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.
