ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses two interconnected sets of questions related to the assessment of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach's physical anthropology in terms of racist vs. non-racist. The first set stems from his classic depiction of the five representative skulls in a horizontal row, with the Caucasian specimen placed in the center of that row or, to use Blumenach's words, in "first place". The second set of questions relates to the following: if indeed it is wrong to see in Blumenbach's doctoral dissertation and his collection of human skulls a fountainhead of scientific racism, where then should its beginnings be located. The protagonists were Thomas Henry Huxley, who formulated the Darwinian, racist "law" that came to be known as "Huxley's rule," and his bete noire, Richard Owen, who held on to a Blumenbachian/Prichardian belief that the differences between human varieties are insignificant compared to human-ape ones. Huxley was judged the winner, and scientific racism unfurled its banner.
