History of the United States I / Unit 13 USH1 1856 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Phrenology
The idea
Phrenology was the mapping of the cranium to specific human attributes, holding that the mind contained thirty-seven faculties whose strength could be read from the shape of the skull. Franz Joseph Gall developed it in Europe and the practice reached the United States in the eighteen twenties. The anchor notes that while phrenology is pseudoscience, Gall's underlying claim that different parts of the brain govern different functions was an important advance in understanding the organ.
In practice
A method promising to read a stranger's character as a set of known faculties, at a moment when Americans were surrounded by strangers.
Where people slip
The anchor explains its popularity by the desire of people in a rapidly changing society, where older ties to community and family were being challenged, to understand one another. Set it beside Unit 12 entry 1710. Both are cranial pseudoscience of the same decades, and one sorted strangers while the other argued that Black and White people were separate species.
Your place on the trail
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Unlocks
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