New Directions

Volume 3 | Issue 2 Article 9

4-1-1976

The State of Black AmericaEditorial Staff

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Recommended CitationStaff, Editorial (1976) "The State of Black America," New Directions: Vol. 3: Iss. 2, Article 9.Available at: http://dh.howard.edu/newdirections/vol3/iss2/9

What24

IsMan?

• I

An Anatomist's View

By W. Montague Cobb

When one surveys the merits and ills ofhuman society, one inevitably wonderswhat sort of a creature man is anyway.The pressures of the turmoil, conflicts andinsecurities with which we all must livegive rise to the question: In light of thenature of man, is there anything to bedone about him?

In modern scientific perspective, mancan be defined as a predatory primatewho has become the dominant form oflife on earth. He owes this dominance tothe assumption of the erect posture abouttwo and a half million years ago, as mani-fest in the Australopithecine hominids ofAfrica who were only about three and ahalf feet tall. The adoption of the erectbipedal habit freed his hands while theywere still in a generalized condition, nothindered in their capacities by the spe-cializations found in the anthropoid apes.With his two free hands, man learned tomake simple tools and weapons whichenabled him to cope with an environmentin which he could not otherwise havesurvived.

His brain was originally large, relativeto body size, permitting good visuo-motor coordination, a heritage probablyderived from some arboreal ancestor.The brain continued to increase, with

RAMAPITHECUS

body size, and reached its present rangeof dimensions at least 100,000years ago.Yet man has used this brain to developwhat might be called civilizations onlyduring about the last 8000 years, with theexplorations and discoveries responsiblefor today's modern technology and popu-lation explosion occurring during thelast 400 years. Moreover, cultural inertiawould appear to be a world-wide phe-nomenon. In our own time peoples inmountainous regions of Europe havebeen studied who are estimated not tohave changed their lifestyles in 1000years and some in the Andean mountainswho have not altered their ways in 300years. It would seem clear, therefore,that the present distribution of the world'sgoods and power is due to somethingless than divine ordination or superiorgenetic endowment in any group.

Education in Human Biology

Because education is the process towhich we traditionally look for theimprovement of society and the correc-tion of its ills, including racism, whichhas been a divisive force throughoutAmerican history, in 1943 I published inthe Journal of Negro History a paperentitled, "Education in Human Biology: 1

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HOMO ENSIS

HOMO SAPIENS

25

HOMO ENSIS

Everyone, moreover, can be identifiedas being some intergrade between thethree extreme somatotypes, the lean orectomorph, the muscular or mesomorph,and the fat or endomorph. These physicaltypes have been recognized since greatantiquity and various personality traitsassociated with them. To cite one classi-cal allusion, Shakespeare has Caesarsay to Antony

Let me have about men that are fat,Sleek-headed men and such as sleep

o'nights:Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry

look;He thinks too much: such men are

dangerous.

With respect to these basic human vari-ants of age, sex, race and physical type,one cannot generalize about a givengroup in terms of one without taking into.account the other three because all areinterrelated. Thus a generalization ofsay, five year olds, would require specifi-cation of boys or girls, ethnic derivationand physical type. This is necessarybecause all of these factors could affectthe conclusions drawn, and this refersonly to physical matters.

In the paper on education in humanbiology for all, I decried the customary

COMPOSITE MODERN

An Essential for the Present and Future."This was an attempt to set down a fewfacts from the realm of anatomy andphysical anthropology which everyoneought to know. The premise was and isthat the diffusion of such facts throughthe educational systems and mediawould promote more objective socialattitudes among the population.

The paper collated the principal factsabout primate evolution, the anatomy ofthe erect posture and the distinguishingfeatures of modern man as a genus. Thebasic human variants, age, sex, race andphysical type were illustrated.

Everyone is somewhere in age betweenfertilization and senescence. One iseither male or female, the indeterminatebeing so few as to constitute a specialproblem.

One is genetically from one of the threemajor human stocks, the black orNegroid, the white or Caucasoid and theyellow-brown or Mongoloid, but humanintermixture has been in progress for solong that it is almost impossible to defineand identify a "pure" individual. Thusmost of humanity represents an admixtureof various kinds and degrees, andextremes of variability in physical fea-tures cannot be used as establishing dis-tinctive phenotypes.

hierarchial chart of human ascentbecause, like a tree, there are lower andhigher branches which generally showthe Afro-American at the bottom and thewhite man at the top. To gain greaterobjectivity, I made a different chart inwhich the main branch of human phyleticdescent was turned on the side and thusno form would be at the bottom and noneat the top. The geologic periods at which'the several types of fossil man divergedfrom the main stem were easily shown.The respective putative appearances ofPithecanthropus, Sinanthropus, Heidel-berg, Rhodesian and Neanderthal manwere indicated. For a composite modernman, I used the head of an Afro-Americanas the most representative because he isa blend of all three basic human stocks.

The comprehensive coverage of thepaper cited included reference to errorsresulting from the use of race undefinedor specific racial traits as indicia of quali-ties to which race has no organic rela-tion. It was emphasized that no harmcould result from the objective investiga-tion of race as one of the most obviousaspects of human variation. It was citedthat while racial traits involve more thansurface characters and no one knowstheir fullest extent, these traits have inthemselves practically no survival value 2

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26 in life as man lives it today. Race, biologi-cally, provides no index of physical,mental or cultural capacity.

Insofar as I have been able to deter-mine, only sporadic attempts have beenmade to disseminate information of thiskind in educational programs for anyage level, adult education included.Nevertheless, adverse propaganda innew and more exalted form continues toappear.

Biological Quality

Two years ago, as a visiting professor ofanatomy at Stanford University, I waslunching alone at the Faculty Club oneday when a kindly, distinguished lookinggentleman came over and asked to joinme. After the pleasantries, he said, "Iam William Shockley," and asked if Iwerefamiliar with his ideas. I said, "only fromwhat I had read in the newspapers." Hethen outlined his views and invited anopinion. I had to acknowledge an inabilityto evaluate his methodology as I had nocompetence in mathematics. After heasked what I thought about his publi-cized conclusions, I replied, "Nothing atall."

I explained that all of my life I had beenexposed to' propaganda purporting toshow Negro inferiority and that I hadreviewed the body of so-called scientificevidence on this in various publications.In the alarm area, it was tuberculosiswhen I was a boy. Chevy Chase familieswere warned against domestics becauseof the risk of infection with this disease.When Iwas in high school, it was venerealdisease. Nearly all Afro-Americans weresupposed to have it. They were notimmoral, merely amoral. Stay away fromthem. As late as 1930, I heard a distin-guished clinician at Western ReserveUniversity say of a moot case in diagnosisthat despite the absence of positive find-ings, the race of the patient was presump-tive evidence that he had syphilis. WhenI was in college, the Stanford-Binet intelli-gence test was just coming into vogue. Itwas eagerly promoted by such groups

as the American Eugenics Society, butthe enthusiasm died down after theamount of feeblemindness it uncoveredin the white population became known.

I told Dr. Shockley that to me his theo-ries were just the most recent anti-Blackmaterial to appear and that I felt therecord was adequate rebuttal.

I advanced that the Afro-American wasthe most highly selected biological ele-ment in the American population. Whenthe slave raiders struck, they took thebest physical specimens, an initial selec-tion. On the long trek to the coast inshackles, grey ladies did not go along toserve tea to the weary. Those who fell outwere cut loose and thrown by the way-side, a second selection. In the pens atthe coastal factories where the captiveswhere held awaiting a ship, the dealersdid not provide hotel accommodationsand there was further mortality, a thirdselection. The horrors of the Middle Pas-sage or the voyage across the Atlantichave been too well documented torequire description, a fourth selection.Thus every African who landed on theseshores had undergone a more rigid bio-logical selection than any group in thehistory of mankind. Moreover, more than250 years of hard labor, long hours, andmeager food, clothing and shelter arenot calculated to promote the survivalof the unfit.

Despite the propaganda and oppres-sion, the genetic quality must have held,else how could we explain the suddenburgeoning of Afro-American super-starsin every sport, once the barriers werelifted.

On the other hand, the Europeanlanded on this side, with the singleexception of the Puritans who includedmany well educated people, were gen-erally fleeing persecution of some sortat home, and they brought their elderlyand ailing with them. Benjamin Franklinonce appealed to the Crown of Englandto stop using the colonies as a dumpingground for all its unwanted-from thejails, alms houses and brothels. Dr. Louis

T. Wright, retired director of the FolgerShakespeare Library, publicly stated thatfrequently he had to advise the nouveauriche who hire genealogists to researchthe Library's resources to dig up an aris-tocratic ancestry for them that they pur-sue a futile task. The British upper classwho came over did tours of duty andwent home. This is obvious at Williams-burg.

Dr. Shockley commented that I had notdiscussed the subject in the way hewould have thought. But what about hiscriteria for the "perfect man," and heenumerated some of them, which I couldnot follow. I replied that I had no idea ofhow to prepare specifications for the"perfect man," that I was sure plans sub-mitted by the Chinese, the Russians, theNilotes or ourselves would all be differ-ent. Attempts of this sort have an inherentirony subtly expressed by Oliver WendellHolmes, who was professor of anatomyat Harvard University for 35 years, in hisfamous poem, "The Wonderful One HossShay."

I acknowledged, however, that specula-tion as to what the ideal human beingought to be had existed since ancienttimes. As Dr. Shockley did not seemfamiliar with this area, I cited the statueDoryphorus, by Polycleitos of Greece,[about 440 B.C.] which was consideredthe ideal figure and came to be knownas the Canon in his own time.

Galen writing in the second centuryA.D. said, "The exactly well temperedbody is midway between being soft andbeing hard, between being very hairyand being hairless, between having wideveins and having narrow ones, andbetween having a strong pulse and hav-ing a weak one. The body that is exactlybalanced in regard to its organic partsis, to put it briefly, just what the Canonof Polycleitos was said to be."

The Doryphorus supplied the canonused by artists ever since, in which thestature is 7112 times the height of thehead and the shoulder breadth twicethe head height. Since taller figures3

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ILLUSTRATION BY ERNEST WALKER 4

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28 have long been popular throughout theworld, a canon of eight heads for thestature has been the most widely useddating from the statue, the Agias, byLyssipos in 330 B.C. through the Adamand Eve of Durer in 1504 and the frontis-piece figures of the normal male andfemale in the Fabrica of Vesalins in 1543.I utilized the Canon of Polycleitos indeveloping, "A Graphic Method of Anat-omy," in our own laboratory wherebyeach student could learn to draw hisanatomy as he studied it.

Getting back to Dr. Shockley, when wegot to the mental area, I had to say that Iknew of no positive correlations betweenstatus in life and intelligence. Were thewealthy brighter than the poor? WereSenators brighter than Congressmen?Were corporation executives smarter thantheir subordinates? Were white collarworkers abler than blue-collar? Howabout M.D.s and Ph.D.s? The complexi-ties here involved diffused the conversa-tion.

I added that I had no worries aboutAfro-Americans working to the top inevery field and I know a few who wouldmake good Presidents for the UnitedStates.

It seemed worth adding that Sir ArthurKeith long ago commented that a personwho has learned a job well uses onlyabout one eighth of the capacity of hiscerebral cortex. Since only a limitednumber of people is necessary to main-tain and carry forward the creative workof any culture, we must have a greatmany citizens utilizing only an eighth oftheir cortical potential.

As to the path to status or "success,"the advice of the Admiral in Pinafore indescribing his rise from office boy toRuler of the Queen's Navee, seemsrelevant.

Now landsmen all, whoever you maybe,

If you want to rise to the top of the tree,If your soul isn't fettered to an office

stool,

Be careful to be guided by this goldenrule-Stick close to your desks and never

go to sea,And you all may be Rulers of the

Queen's Navee!

Be it remembered that in the final actwhen it was discovered that the Captainwas really low-born and the commonsailor, Ralph Rackstraw, was really high-born, because in their infancy littleButtercup had mixed those two babiesup, the indicated social adjustment wassimply made by the Captain and Rack-straw just swapping hats.

Finally, Dr. Shockley said, "What aboutsickle cell anemia?" I replied that I hadbeen waiting for that one. Of course wewant to find a remedy for this conditionand all possible research toward thatend should be pushed, just as we searchfor cures for cancer, heart disease andsoon.

But the panic signals on the sickle celltrait have been premature and unjusti-fied, and have already done a great dealof harm. The sickle cell genes have beenover here for more than 350 years and ifthey could have produced a lethal ordysgenic effect population-wise, the evi-dence would be manifest. Rather theopposite is true. Despite the privationsand oppression the Afro-American seg-ment of our population has undergone, itrepresents the greatest little-tappedreservoir of physical and intellectualvigor that we have.

And as to selective human mating Icited the observations of the distin-guished journalist, the late HeywoodBroun, Sr. Writing in opposition to a steri-lization law before the New York Legis-lature a few decades ago, Broun saidthat he had no objection to sterilizationto prevent the propagation of knownheritable defects, such as amelos.Beyond that he would have many reser-vations. A known devotee of the racetrack, Broun cited that 75 years of sci-entific horse breeding had failed to pro-

duce an animal which could breakWhiskbroom's record for the mile and aquarter, while the human race, whichhas always bred helterskelter had comealong with men like Cunningham andVenzke, who have knocked the top-I ightsout of the record for the mi Ie. Therefore,he would have no confidence in anycommissions who would have to decidewho was to be sterilized. I said that cur-rent records have more than sustainedBroun's conclusions and Iwould go alongwith him.

Iwas careful to point out to Dr.Shockleythat I was not advocating any new kind ofracism. Perish the thought. I had in myown constitution, as did most other Afro-Americans, genes from African, Europeanand American Indian sources, and I havenever been able to assign my positiveand negative traits to any particularancestry. In fact, the only case in whichthis has been done with which I am famil-iar is that of my own children, as to whosenegative traits their mother would fre-quently point out, "Just like your father,"leaving the inference that all their posi-tive qual ities were maternally inherited.

Beyond RacismIt is popular today to denounce racismas the dominant ill of our country. But alittle reflection will make obvious thatracism cannot be the root of all evil. InNorthern Ireland, religious differencesbetween whites has produced a conflictof inestimable bitterness. The Nigeriancivil war was a case of Blacks againstBlacks. The India-Pakistan war was.be-tween peoples of similar ethnic groups.

Man's brain has enabled him to landon the moon, probe outer space andplumb the secrets of the atom, but it hasnot yet brought him to the point of gettingalong with himself. His technology, more-over, has developed a weaponry whichcould effect the annihilation of thespecies.

The problem might be posited as thatof Homo sanguinis or Man the Bloody,

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Man's brain has enabled himto land on the moon, probeouter space and plumb thesecrets of the atom, but it hasnot yet brought him to thepoint of getting along withhimself. His technology,moreover, has developed aweaponry which could effectthe annihilation of thespecies.

The problem might beposited as that of Homosanguinis or Man theBloody, versus Homo sapiensor Man the Wise. At thepresent time, Home sanguinishas the upper hand and it ismoot whether Homo sapienscan supersede him.

versus Homo sapiens or Man the Wise.At the present time, Homo sanguinishas the upper hand and it is moot whetherHomo sapiens can supersede him.

Man, incontrovertibly, is the bloodiestof all creatures. Prehistoric evidenceindicates the widespread practice ofwarfare and cannibalism. In the Biblicalstory of Cain and Abel we are presentedwith a fratricide in the first generationafter the Creation. After Moses came downfrom Mount Sinai with the Ten Command-ments, one of his first acts was to order apurge of the dissenters.

The Phoenician deity, Moloch, receivedinto his fiery maw countless thousands ofinfants offered up by his worshippersabout the ancient Med iterranean littoral.In this hemisphere, the 15th CenturyAztecs had developed the bloodiestsacrificial cult of all time; in one cere-mony 20,000 and in another 12,000human victims had their hearts tom outfor theolog ical purposes.

While ritual human sacrifice has beenabandoned, the world has witnessed themore horrible perpetrations underattempted genocide. The Nazi war crimesare well known. The Japanese acknowl-edge that they killed 25 million Chineseduring the occupation of 1937-42. TheChinese say the figure was 35 million.

Upon what does the Homo sanguinisfeed today? Upon hate, and hate is rifethroughout the world. As to what hatedoes, Melville gave the answer in one ofthe greatest of all novels, Moby Dick, atreatise on hate.

To make the story impersonal he makesthe object of Captain Ahab's hate ananimal, the whale. He makes the whalewhite as a symbol of evil and devotes awhole chapter to the whiteness of thewhale. The harpooners, the prime crew-men, represent all the races of mankind-Queequeg the South Sea Islander, Tash-tego the Indian, Daggoo the African,and Fedallah the Parsee. In the universalsetting of the seven seas, Ahab's relent-less pursuit finally leads him to Moby

Dick, who rams the ship, so that in the 29end Ahab loses all-his ship, filled withoil, his crew, his life-and the whale,though badly mauled, gets away. Thehate, in the end, yielded only totaldestruction, and failed, to achieve itsobject.

Is there any way in which man canunderstand what is necessary to over-come this entrenched human habit ofsanguinary hate? First, its pal ingeneticcharacter must be recognized. Man hasbeen a bloody, predatory primate for atleast two and a half million years, butonly in about the last 2500 years has hedeveloped anything like ethical systems,a caenogenetic habit. Consequently,man's ethical ideas lie like a thin, easilyscraped-off veneer, upon the ten timesolder substrate of man's palingeneticsanguinary habits. Can Homo sapienswin? It is possible, but this will requiremore universally directed effort than hashitherto appeared on the earth. Here theanatomical point of view may be helpful.

Our Palingenetic and CaenogeneticHeritageThe human body is a functional whole,but its multiple parts represent differ-ing degrees of antiquity. Characterswhich reflect long phyletic history arereferred to as palingenetic, while those ofrelatively recent origin, useful to a partic-ular species, are called caenogenetic.For example, the cell is the earliest formof life, going back to the origin of life onearth about a billion or more years ago.The composition of the body as a mass ofcells of different kinds is thus a palin-genetic character.

Similarly, the differentiation of thespermatozoan as a small, mobile ele-ment and the ovum as a large, passiveelement, is a palingenetic characterbecause this differentiation occurredmore than 500 million years ago beforethe vertebrate stem diverged from theinvertebrate. There is little difference insize between the sperm and ova of thesmall fish, Fundulus, and those of mam-

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l

Every region of the bodyshows anatomical modifica-tions for adaptation to theerect posture, but becausethis habitus is so recent,there has not yet beenenough time to work all ofthe "bugs" out of themachinery. Hence, we sufferfrom a whole series of ail-ments related to the adoptionof the erect posture andnothing else. These includeflat feet, varicose veins,inguinal and femoral hernia,hemorrhoids, weaknesses ofthe pelvic floor, particularlyin the female, pathologicalcurvatures of the spine,sacroiliac disorders,visceroptosis, panniculusadiposus, wing scapula, etc.

Could it not also be truethat the human brain has notyet had time so to perfect itscircuitry as to control ourirrational behavior? All theurges to violent behavior areconditioned by palingeneticanatomy, which instead ofbeing controlled by corticalanatomy, too often controlthe cerebral cortex, subvert-ing it to increasing clevernessin the design of fearsomeweapon systems of species-annihilating potential.

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mals like the mouse, elephant, whaleand man. This made it possible for thephenomena of fertilization to be studiedchiefly upon marine invertebrates, aswas done by the late distinguishedHoward University scientist, Ernest E.Just, and have the results be immediatelyreferrable to man because in the enor-mous time span of 500 million years nofurther evolution in that particular trait-small, mobile spermatozoan; large, pas-sive ovum- had taken place.

The segmented vertebral column isalso a palingenetic character, as is thepossession of limbs, but the limbs aremuch younger than the vertebral columnbecause their development dates fromthe emergence of lung fish from the seaand the adoption of terrestrial life habit.

On the other hand, the assumption ofthe erect posture by man, to which heowes his planetary dominance, is rela-tively a very recent caenogeneticcharacter.

Every region of the body shows ana-tomical modifications for adaptation tothe erect posture, but because this habi-tus is so recent, there has not yet beenenough time to work all of the "bugs"out of the machinery. Hence, we sufferfrom a whole series of ailments relatedto the adoption of the erect posture andnothing else. These include flat feet,varicose veins, inguinal and femoralhernia, hemorrhoids, weaknesses of thepelvic floor, particularly in the female,pathological curvatures of the spine,sacroi Iiac disorders, visceroptosis, pan-niculus adiposus, wing scapula, etc.

Could it not also be true that the humanbrain has not yet had time so to perfectits circuitry as to control our irrationalbehavior? All the urges to violent behav-ior are conditioned by palingenetic anat-omy, which instead of being controlledby cortical anatomy, too often controlthe cerebral cortex, subverting it toincreasing cleverness in the design offearsome weapon systems of species-annihilating potential.

Since the first step toward remedy ofany cond ition is diagnosis, it is suggestedhere that man's present dilemma-whilelong recognized-has not been stated inthe simple terms of what it is, Homosanguinis versus Homo sapiens. Thishas possibly been due to our presentpreoccupation with the ultramicroscopicin biochemical, biophysical and bio-medical areas, when the gross diagnosisis obvious. Let us not miss the forest forthe trees and give Homo sapiens theattention he must have.

Victory for Sapiens

Alfred Friendly, former managing editorof the Washington Post, wrote a fancifulstory, "Death of the Earth, Seen from45,000 A.D." The planet Earth is beingstudied by a space expedition fromelsewhere. Man is extinct, apparentlyhaving come to a sudden end through aseries of nuclear explosions. His records,discovered in a time capsule, give riseto this comment in the space mission'sreport:

"What was unique about Earth was thatthrough its last period and consistentlyeven in the midst of its wars, lasting honorand esteem were accorded to the peace-makers, not the warriers. Highest andmost enduring value was placed on theprecepts and philosophies of the proph-ets of survival and amity, not on the belli-cose voices.

"To be sure, champions in war evokedintense adulation during their lifetimesand at recurrent but brief periods. Butthe persons and ideals which were givenpermanent honor in all civilizations onEarth which had progressed beyondstone implement cultures were thosewhich acclaimed love, forbearance, free-dom, the supreme importance andsacredness of each individual creatureand his personal and spiritual liberty."

I take the optimistic view and closewith a short poem of Edwin Markham's:

He drew a circle and shut me out,Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.But love and I had wit to win.We drew a circle that took him in.

The hope of Homo sapiens is in the largercircle. 0

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W. Montague Cobb, M.D., Ph.D., is distinguishedprofessor of anatomy emeritus, Howard UniversityCollege of Medicine. This article is a condensedversion of the 50th George M. Kober MemorialLecture at Georgetown University, which waspublished in whole in The Georgetown MedicalBulletin, Vol. 27, August, 1974.

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