ABSTRACT
Like d’Omalius is mostly known for his geological studies, and de Laveleye for his work in political economy, Vanderkindere is rather remembered as a historian than an anthropologist. According to renowned historian Henri Pirenne, Vanderkindere’s ‘complete’ and ‘intemperate’ adherence to racial theory was due to contacts with Hippoliet Bauduin, a friend of the father of Vanderkindere and owner of a private library with publications on ‘ethnographic problems’. In a period of fierce ideological struggles between Catholics and liberals in Belgium, Vanderkindere took the side of the anti-clerical party. However, during the fourth conference of the pan-European and liberal International Association for the Progress of Social Sciences (IAPSS) in Bern in 1865 (Müller 2011), Vanderkindere stated that this ideological battle was not the real problem in Belgium. After all, the nation was still capable of sending colonial troops to Mexico.
