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Developmental disorder, racial dissolution: racial typologies of developmental normalcy in early child medicine,
1Princeton University, New Jersey, USA.
Insights
Nineteenth-century child development science established racial norms, not statistical ones. This race-making enterprise pathologized developmental differences, linking them to racial hierarchies and degeneration fears.
Area of Science:
- History of Medicine
- Developmental Science
- Race and Eugenics
Background:
- Nineteenth-century medical science defined developmental normalcy within racial groups, diverging from later statistical averages.
- Early child development science was intertwined with racial classification and hierarchy construction.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze how nineteenth-century child development science functioned as a race-making enterprise.
- To explore the racial parameters of developmental norms and their association with racial differentiation.
- To examine the historical construction of developmental disability as a racial category.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of early child medicine treatises.
- Examination of anatomical, physiological, and ethnological texts from the nineteenth century.
- Integration of histories of child development science, antebellum medical cultures, and disability history.
Main Results:
- Racial parameters were identified for developmental norms, with cranial suture closure and puberty highlighted for racial differentiation.
- Variable developmental rates and synchronicity between mental and physical growth were used to establish racial hierarchies and fears of degeneration.
- Developmental disorders, particularly 'ethnic' classifications of idiocy, threatened racial order and were managed to safeguard White racial purity.
Conclusions:
- Nineteenth-century child development science was instrumental in constructing race.
- The clinical management of child development became crucial for maintaining racial purity amidst evolutionary concerns.
- This study provides a pre-history of 'developmental disability' as a racialized category.
Abstract:
Decades before medical definitions of developmental normalcy revolved around statistical averages, nineteenth-century medical scientists identified a non-statistical "normal" that cohered within racial groups but was not generalizable across them. Using early child medicine treatises and anatomical, physiological, and ethnological texts, this article argues that nineteenth-century child development science was a race-making enterprise. The first sections analyze texts on child development and disease, identifying the racial parameters of developmental norms and the developmental events most frequently associated with racial differentiation: cranial suture closure and puberty. The following sections argue that variable rates of development and the degree of synchronicity between mental and physical development produced racial hierarchies and threatened racial degeneration. By examining "ethnic" classifications of idiocy, in which developmental timing considered typical for Black children was pathologized in White children, this article argues that developmental disorder posed a threat to racial order. As Darwinian evolutionism introduced scientific and social concerns about the historical contingency of racial progress, the clinical management of child development acquired newfound importance as a safeguard for White racial purity. Joining histories of nineteenth-century child development science and antebellum medical cultures with disability history, this article offers a pre-history of "developmental disability" as a racial category.
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