CountGeorges Vacher de Lapouge (French:[vaʃedəlapuʒ]; 12 December 1854 – 20 February 1936) was a French
anthropologist and a theoretician of
eugenics and
scientific racism. He is known as the founder of anthroposociology, the anthropological and sociological study of race as a means of establishing the superiority of certain peoples.
Vacher de Lapouge endorsed
Francis Galton's theory of
eugenics, but applied it to his theory of races. Vacher de Lapouge's ideas are comparable to those of
Henri de Boulainvilliers (1658–1722), who believed that the Germanic
Franks formed the upper class of French society, whereas the
Gauls were the ancestors of the
peasantry. Race, according to him, thus became almost synonymous with
social class. Vacher de Lapouge added to this concept of races and classes what he termed selectionism, his version of Galton's eugenics. Vacher de Lapouge's anthropology was intended to prevent
social conflict by defining a fixed, hierarchical social order.[3][4]
Lapouge had a direct influence on
National Socialist racial and eugenic doctrine. In his "political science" works he described the Jew as the only competitor of the Aryan, who dominated lesser races without them knowing. Lapouge in 1887 had predicted that the 20th century would witness genocides that slaughtered millions over their alleged racial differences, though he was not saying this should occur. He wrote of "anti-morality" (
moral nihilism), along with proposing a total "selectionist" state that would strictly enforce racist eugenics. Anthropologist
Hans F. K. Gunther praised his work and eulogized him when Lapouge died. Lapouge in turn championed Gunther's cause to become a chair of "anthroposociology" at the
University of Jena. Indeed, most of Lapouge's followers were Germans, which caused ironic tension given their old German-French rivalry. Some also felt discomfort at his fervent atheism and materialism, but this did not stop them from adopting his eugenicist and racial ideas. They also disliked his idea that sperm from the most "fit" men should be used to impregnate many women
artificially.[7]
Lapouge's work spurred a strong reaction on the
political left in France, since it was seen as undermining the democratic Enlightenment values which they cherished with science, generally deemed their friend (he had repudiated the Revolutionary slogan “
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”, saying this should be replaced with “
Determinism,
Inequality,
Selection”). Lapouge had initially been on the political left but gravitated to the right over time, and held great contempt for other atheists who did not share his convictions, claiming they clung to a theistic-based morality which no longer held. His work left secular leftists with a quandary, since they cited science (some of the same as Lapouge) to advance their own views, though his were opposed to theirs. Anthropologists who shared their views attacked Lapouge's theories, along with the racist and sexist ideas common in anthropology then generally. However, this was not enough for many opponents of Lapouge. They feared that if science were upheld as determining social values, the threat his theories posed (or similar ones) would always exist. French leftists thus increasingly rejected taking science as a source of any political truths. It was argued Enlightenment democratic, egalitarian ideals should be upheld no matter what science said. Equal rights should belong to citizens even assuming any biological disparities that existed between them, they insisted. Increasingly, leftists were driven to debunking racist and sexist claims from anthropology in reaction to claims by Lapouge (among others) given the threat views like his posed to their values. Lapouge complained bitterly of this, and particularly hated one critic who was Jewish, saying his theories had been rejected because of French Jews' influence.[8]
Publications
(1878). Essai Historique sur le Conseil Privé ou Conseil des Parties. Poitiers: Impr. de A. Dupré.
^Hecht, Jennifer Michael (2013). The End of the Soul: Scientific Modernity, Atheism, and Anthropology in France. Columbia University Press, p. 190.
^
Boissel, Jean (1982). "George Vacher de Lapouge: Un Socialiste Revolutionnaire Darwinien," Nouvelle Ecole13, pp. 59–83.
^"Vacher de Lapouge advocated a socialist order because only such an order could assure that each individual’s racially based abilities could be determined independently of his class. When the 'non-doctrinaire socialist' declared in an article published in 1896 that 'socialism will be selectionist or it will not be at all,' he meant above all that the left should adopt the program of a radical eugenic: the breeding of the Aryan man of the future
could only be achieved if, without regard to family background or social status, all 'racially inferior' were prevented from procreation, while all superior men, in addition to a service militaire, would be required to perform a service sexuelle without
regard to all traditional norms of sexual behavior. Only if this political model of socialist eugenics were implemented, according to Vacher de Lapouge, would there be any chance that France would survive the impending great conflicts." — Weissmann, Karlheinz (1996).
"The Epoch of National Socialism,"The Journal of Libertarian Studies12 (2), pp. 260.
^Matsuo Takeshi (
University of Shimane, Japan). L'Anthropologie de Georges Vacher de Lapouge: Race, Classe et Eugénisme (Georges Vacher de Lapouge anthropology) in Etudes de Langue et littérature Françaises, 2001, No. 79, pp. 47-57. ISSN 0425-4929 ;
INIST-
CNRS, Cote INIST : 25320, 35400010021625.0050 (
Abstract resume on the INIST-CNRS)
^"G. Vacher de Lapouge was a man of wide interest in history, sociology and anthropology. Unlike many students of the ethnic problem, he possessed a good working knowledge of biology and human anatomy. He was a disciple of Haeckel and translated the latter's booklet on the philosophy of monism into French, and provided an introduction to it." — Baker, John R. (1974). "The Historical Background," in Race. Oxford University Press, p. 46.
^Hecht, Jennifer Michael (2000). "Vacher de Lapouge and the Rise of Nazi Science". Journal of the History of Ideas. 61 (2): 285–304.
doi:
10.1353/jhi.2000.0018.
S2CID170993471.
Augustin, Jean-Marie (2006). "Georges Vacher de Lapouge (1854-1936) aux Origines de l'Eugénisme", Revue Générale de Droit Médical, No. 21, p. 109-132.
Augustin, Jean-Marie (2011). Georges Vacher de Lapouge (1854-1936): Juriste, Raciologue et Eugéniste. Presses de l'Université de Toulouse I Capitole.
Bernardini, Jean-Marc (1997). Le Darwinisme Sociale en France. Paris: CNRS Ed.
Clark, Linda L. (1984). Social Darwinism in France. The University of Alabama Press.
Colombat, Jean (1946). La Fin du Monde Civilisé: Les Prophéties de Vacher de Lapouge. Paris: Vrin.
Gasman, Daniel (1998). "The Monism of Georges Vacher de Lapouge and Gustave Le Bon," in Haeckel's Monism and the Birth of Fascist Ideology. New York: Peter Lang.
Hawkins, Mike (1997). Social Darwinism in European and American Thought, 1860-1945. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Hecht, Jennifer Michael (April 2000). "Vacher de Lapouge and the Rise of Nazi Science". Journal of the History of Ideas. 61 (2): 285–304.
doi:
10.1353/jhi.2000.0018.
S2CID170993471.
La Haye Jousselin, Henri de (1986). Georges Vacher de Lapouge (1854-1936): Essai de Bibliographie. Paris: Imprimerie A. Bontemps.
Nagel, Günter (1975). Georges Vacher de Lapouge (1854-1936): Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Sozialdarwinismus in Frankreich. Freiburg: Hans Ferdinand Schulz.
Patte, Étienne (1937). "Georges Vacher de Lapouge (1854-1936)," Revue Générale de du Centre-Ouest de la France, 12e Année, pp. 769–789.
Quinlan, S. M. (1999). "The Racial Imagery of Degeneration and Depopulation: Georges Vacher de Lapouge and 'Anthroposociology' in Fin-de-Siècle France," History of European Ideas24 (6), 393-413.