Efram Sera-Shriar 
Historicizing Humans [EPUB ebook] 
Deep Time, Evolution, and Race in Nineteenth-Century British Sciences

<i>With an Afterword by Theodore Koditschek</i>

A number of important developments and discoveries across the British Empire's imperial landscape during the nineteenth century invited new questions about human ancestry. The rise of secularism and scientific naturalism; new evidence, such as skeletal and archaeological remains; and European encounters with different people all over the world challenged the existing harmony between science and religion and threatened traditional biblical ideas about special creation and the timeline of human history. Advances in print culture and voyages of exploration also provided researchers with a wealth of material that contributed to their investigations into humanity’s past.

<i>Historicizing Humans</i> takes a critical approach to nineteenth-century human history, as the contributors consider how these histories were shaped by the colonial world, and for various scientific, religious, and sociopolitical purposes. This volume highlights the underlying questions and shared assumptions that emerged as various human developmental theories competed for dominance throughout the British Empire.

About the author

<b>Efram Sera-Shriar </b>is a historical anthropologist who specializes in Victorian science. He is associate professor in English studies at the University of Copenhagen, where he teaches the history and culture of the English-speaking world. Sera-Shriar is the author of <i>Psychic Investigators: Anthropology, Modern Spiritualism, and Credible Witnessing in the Late Victorian Age</i> and <i>The Making of British Anthropology, 1813–1871</i> and senior editor for The Correspondence of John Tyndall<i> </i>series.