The Genius of Kinship: The Phenomenon of Human Kinship and the G ...

General, et du Cerveau en Particulier, avec des Observations sur la Possibilité de Reconnaître Plusiers Dispositions Intellectuelles et Morales de l'Homme et des Animaux, par la Confiuration de Leurs Tetes) (1810–1819). This four-volume work initiated the science of phrenology (from Greek phrenos ‘mind’). In addition to the Germans, Gall (1758–1828) and Spurzheim (1776–1832), Scottish brothers George Combe (1788–1858) and Andrew Combe (1797–1847), and American brothers Lorenzo Fowler (1811–1896) and Orson Fowler (1809–1887) were the key engines of the phrenological movement. Phrenologists actually used the term “anthropology” (Spurzheim, 1821) to refer to the study of human physical and mental nature and the mode in which it can be improved.

According to phrenologists, individual personality was innate and determined by biological heredity. In the words of a historian of Victorian science, Robert Young (1970, p. 15), Gall postulated “a set of innate, inherited instincts transmitted in the form of cerebral organs.” The brain was divided into functionally distinct parts responsible for different mental faculties, including speech. In early childhood, the organs of the brain developed in a forward fashion from the basilar region to the front lobes. Phrenologists associated the basilar region with the “domestic propensities” well-developed in women and mothers, and the front lobe with the “intellectual propensities” well-developed in men and fathers. The inner structure of the brain corresponds to the outer shape of the skull, hence there is a linear correlation between the shape and size of the skull and the quality of the mind. The collection and comparative analysis of human skulls leads to valid observations on human biological diversity. The study of lumps on the human head can cast a light on the nature of individual personality.

Gall believed in biological and psychic inheritance but his goal was limited to the elucidation of the principle of innateness. His student and collaborator, Spurzheim, introduced into phrenological parlance the concept of “laws of propagation” (later called “laws of hereditary descent”) (Hilts, 1982, pp. 65–66). Spurzheim was especially interested in the origins of insanity. While the available facts