Evolving Thoughts; At the Close of the Week
March 8, 2010
1860′s Britain; Identity in Crisis
Questions
Looking at attitudes to race in Britain in the 1860′s one major question is to what extent the publication of origin of the species fueled this debate? What motivated the Duke of Argyle’s response to Darwin’s views? It seems possible to say that it was not simply a matter of faith. Identity may also have been a key component. From looking at the ‘racial map’ that was perceived to exist at the time in the U.K. it poses the question, how did Victorian society hold together? Was evolution seen as a threat to Gaelic identity along with the views endorsed by people like Robert Knox or institutions like the anthropological society. Was the response to re-draw Gaelic identity, to associated closely with a Germanic culture? Was the philosophical argument constructed by the duke in part motivated by ethnicity and the need to protect an identity.
Gaelic society has long been under great social pressure, the language itself faces serious problems in the contemporary world. Just as it faced a threat to survival from views on race in the 1860′s. The duke as head of the clan had responsibilities for his people and his culture and this was a role he clearly took seriously as he should. In 1860′s Britain no one was able to press the stop button on the race merry-go-round. How central was ethnicity to politics and political influence in the 1860′s?
Clearly one mechanism to ensure order are the Victorian civic responses, not just the town hall and symbols of empire but the clubs and societies from science to sport we see forming Europe wide at this period.It should also be remembered that a sporting club or any other of these institutions could form the focus to discuss any number of issues. In urban centres like Glasgow where Catholic and protestant was not just a religious but a cultural and political division, such groups were set up according to ethnic division as well as those of class. I wonder if the anthropological society of London had a football team?
But these are urban institutions to a large degree. A rural society would require different measures.
One notable similarity in the drawing of Gaelic society as a Germanic using culture, is that it places them in the same ethnic group as the Royal family. We see at this time Queen Victoria and Albert taking great interest and delighting in highland culture. This clearly must have sent out a political message to those with any one of a number of views on Celtic culture. Given the complex maps drawn, they could also be perceived as simply taking an interest in there own cultural heritage it would seem.
The ethnology of 1860′s Scotland is a measure which is partly protecting and preserving Gaelic culture and seeking to police the boundaries it has drawn? A rational and reasonable political response the problems of the day? Their are clearly no single neat and tidy answers here when we look at this ethnological response or the philosophy which builds on it.
As always these thoughts will have moved on by the end of week 4. The cultural map of Britain at this period is a complex thing. A fast paced merry-go-round of belief and counter belief. Subject to a range of issues form politics, science, philosophy and cultural and social pressure. Yet the fact that these positions could and were debated in the clubs and societies throughout the land, on the soap box of politicians and the houses of Lord’s and Common’s. Britain’s Empire still ran. Wealth flowed into the nation and a civic structure was constructed.
Further ensuring stability.
