Anth 450 Modern Human Biological Variation
Dr. Darlene Applegate
Fall 2007
Ideas for Gould Paper
Your expository paper on Gould's The
Mismeasure of Man will include a summary of the main ideas as
well as your responses to the book. The following suggestions are not
meant to be an exhaustive list; there may be other information you will
want to include in your papers.
- What were Gould's general goals in writing the book?
- What were
Gould's
specific
goals in writing the book? (See Chapter 1)
- Were these goals realized?
Why
or why not?
- What are the fundamental concepts investigated and discussed by
Gould?
- How do the fundamental concepts relate to the stated goals of
the book?
- How do these concepts relate to course topics in modern human
biological variation?
- Core concepts include the following:
- biological determinism
- objectivity
- reification
- ranking
- intelligence
- craniometry
- intelligence testing
- monogenism vs. polygenism
- recapitulation
- criminal anthropology
- eugenics
- innateness or hereditarianism
- heritability
- What is your impression of the scientists and their research as
covered
in the book?
- Should scientists be held accountable for their research
and
the effects that their research has on society? If so, how? If not, why
not?
- What aspects of Gould's argument that you agree with? Disagree
with?
Why?
- What aspects of the book were expected? Unexpected? Why?
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