| Abstract |
During the 1740s, there was a debate on the causes of the color of the Black people among French scholars. Many of them supported the climatic theory and advocated that the color of the Black people evolved from those White people who migrated to the tropics, and their skin gradually darkened there, owing to the hot and dry environment. Maupertuis (1689-1759) was one of the supporters of this theory and the case of albinos strongly convinced him that the primitive color of humankind was white. His interest in human’s hereditary phenomenon encouraged his further research on a new human race ‘white negro’. Although his opinions sound very modern, classical literature actually played an essential role in the foundation of his thought, apart from the influence of his contemporary scientific scholarship. |
