''Mankind Quarterly'' is a

pseudoscientific Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable cl ...

journal that covers physical and

cultural anthropology Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The term ...

, including

human evolution ''Homo sapiens'' is a distinct species of the hominid family of primates, which also includes all the great apes. Over their evolutionary history, humans gradually developed traits such as Human skeletal changes due to bipedalism, bipedalism, de ...

intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as t ...

ethnography Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

mythology Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

, and

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

. It has been described as a "cornerstone of the

scientific racism Scientific racism, sometimes termed biological racism, is the pseudoscience, pseudoscientific belief that the Human, human species is divided into biologically distinct taxa called "race (human categorization), races", and that empirical evi ...

establishment", a "

white supremacist White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine ...

journal", and "a pseudo-scholarly outlet for promoting racial inequality".Ibrahim G. Aoudé, ''The ethnic studies story: politics and social movements in Hawaiʻi'', University of Hawaii Press, 1999, p. 111. The ''Mankind Quarterly'' is published by the white nationalist Human Diversity Foundation.

History

The journal was established in 1960 with funding from segregationists, who designed it to serve as a mouthpiece for their views. The costs of initially launching the journal were paid by the Pioneer Fund's Wickliffe Draper. The founders were Robert Gayre, Henry Garrett, Roger Pearson, Corrado Gini, Luigi Gedda (Honorary Advisory Board), Otmar von Verschuer and Reginald Ruggles Gates. Another early editor was Herbert Charles Sanborn, formerly the chair of the department of Philosophy and Psychology at

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private university, private research university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provide ...

from 1921 to 1942. It was originally published in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, by the International Association for the Advancement of Ethnology and Eugenics, an organization founded by Draper to promote eugenics and scientific racism. Its foundation was a response to the declaration by

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

, which dismissed the validity of race as a biological concept, and to attempts to end

racial segregation Racial segregation is the separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Segregation can involve the spatial separation of the races, and mandatory use of different institutions, ...

in the

American South The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is census regions United States Census Bureau. It is between the Atlantic Ocean and the ...

. * In 1961, physical anthropologist Juan Comas published a series of scathing critiques of the journal arguing that the journal was reproducing discredited racial ideologies, such as

Nordicism Nordicism is a racialist ideology which views the "Nordic race" (a historical race concept) as an endangered and superior racial group. Some notable and influential Nordicist works include Madison Grant's book '' The Passing of the Great Rac ...

and

anti-Semitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

, under the guise of science. In 1963, after the journal's first issue, contributors U. R. Ehrenfels, T. N. Madan, and Juan Comas said that the journal's editorial practice was biased and misleading. In response, the journal published a series of rebuttals and attacks on Comas. Comas argued in ''

Current Anthropology ''Current Anthropology'' is a peer-reviewed anthropology academic journal published by the University of Chicago Press for the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. Founded in 1959 by the anthropologist Sol Tax1907-1995. ''Curren ...

'' that the journal's publication of A. James Gregor's review of Comas' book ''Racial Myths'' was politically motivated. Comas claimed the journal misrepresented the field of physical anthropology by adhering to outdated racial ideologies, for example by claiming that

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

were considered a "biological race" by the racial biologists of the time. Other anthropologists complained that paragraphs that did not agree with the racial ideology of the editorial board were deleted from published articles without the authors' agreement.Paul A. Erickson, Liam Donat Murphy. 2013. Readings for A History of Anthropological Theory. University of Toronto Press, p. 534. Few academic anthropologists would publish in the journal or serve on its board; when Gates died, Carleton S. Coon, an anthropologist sympathetic to the hereditarian and racialistic view of the journal, was asked to replace him, but he rejected the offer stating that "I fear that for a professional anthropologist to accept membership on your board would be the kiss of death". The journal continued to be published supported by grant money. Publisher Roger Pearson received over a million dollars in grants from the Pioneer Fund in the 1980s and 1990s.Mehler, Barry (7 July 1998)
Race Science and the Pioneer Fund
Originally published as "The Funding of the Science" in ''Searchlight'', No. 277. During the "'' Bell Curve'' wars" of the 1990s, the journal received attention when opponents of ''The Bell Curve'' publicised the fact that some of the works cited by ''Bell Curve'' authors

Richard Herrnstein Richard Julius Herrnstein (May 20, 1930 – September 13, 1994) was an American psychologist at Harvard University. He was an active researcher in animal learning in the Skinnerian tradition. Herrnstein was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psycho ...

and Charles Murray had first been published in ''Mankind Quarterly''. In ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of ...

'', Charles Lane referred to ''The Bell Curve''s "tainted sources", that seventeen researchers cited in the book's bibliography had contributed articles to, and ten of these seventeen had also been editors of, ''Mankind Quarterly'', "a notorious journal of 'racial history' founded, and funded, by men who believe in the genetic superiority of the white race." The journal has been published by the Ulster Institute for Social Research since January 2015, when publication duties were transferred from (Roger) Pearson's Council for Social and Economic Studies (which had published the journal since 1979)..

Editors

the editor-in-chief was Gerhard Meisenberg. Previous editors include Roger Pearson, Edward Dutton, and

Richard Lynn Richard Lynn (20 February 1930 – July 2023) was a controversial English psychologist and self-described " scientific racist" who advocated for a genetic relationship between race and intelligence. He was the editor-in-chief of '' Mankind Qua ...

Publisher

The ''Mankind Quarterly'' was published by the Ulster Institute for Social Research, which was presided over by

until his death in 2023. As of 2024, ''Mankind Quarterly'' is published by the white nationalist Human Diversity Foundation founded by Danish far-right activist Emil Kirkegaard. The Foundation also publishes the '' Aporia Magazine''. Emil Kirkegaard, a white supremacist and founder of the '' OpenPsych'' journal, was the registrant of the ''Mankind Quarterly'' website between 2017 and February 2023, after which the

WHOIS WHOIS (pronounced as the phrase "who is") is a query and response protocol that is used for querying databases that store an Internet resource's registered users or assignees. These resources include domain names, IP address blocks and autonomo ...

was anonymised. In February 2024, Kirkegaard filed his Mankind Publishing House LLC with the state of

Wyoming Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...

under the name of William Engman (his legal name since 2021).

Reception

''Mankind Quarterly'' has been described as a "cornerstone of the

establishment", a "

journal", an "infamous racist journal", and "scientific racism's keepers of the flame". The journal has been criticised as being both overtly political and strongly right-leaning, supporting

eugenics Eugenics is a set of largely discredited beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter the frequency of various human phenotypes by inhibiting the fer ...

, racist or fascist.

Abstracting and indexing

The journal is abstracted and indexed in: * ATLA Religion Database *

International Bibliography of the Social Sciences The International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS) is a bibliography for social science and interdisciplinary research. The database focuses on the social science disciplines of anthropology, economics, politics and sociology, and rela ...

* Linguistics & Language Behavior Abstracts * Modern Language Association Database *

Scopus Scopus is a scientific abstract and citation database, launched by the academic publisher Elsevier as a competitor to older Web of Science in 2004. The ensuing competition between the two databases has been characterized as "intense" and is c ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1960 establishments in Scotland Anthropology journals Biological anthropology English-language journals Eugenics in the United Kingdom Quarterly journals Pseudoscience literature Academic journals established in 1960 Race and intelligence controversy Scientific racism White supremacy in the United Kingdom