Sexual selection as race making. (2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sheldon, Myrna Perez
• Editors: Milam, Erika Lorraine; Seth, Suman
• Is Part Of: BJHS Themes. Volume 6(2021)
• Page Start: 9
• Page End: 23
• Publication Date: 2021
• Subjects: Science -- Historiography -- Periodicals; Science -- History -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 507.22
• DOI: 10.1017/bjt.2021.2
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2058-850X

Abstract

Abstract: Charles Darwin's theory of sexual selection, as described in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871), should be viewed as a significant transitional point in the modern expression of race. Unlike earlier race theorists, Darwin proposed that sexual reproduction was not merely a testing ground of racial character, but was itself a causal force that could create new races. His account of race was distinctly modern – viewing race not in terms of blood but as a collection of population-level characteristics. Recognizing this feature of Darwin's sexual-selection theory allows us to situate Darwin's work not solely within the history of evolutionary science, but also within the structures of racism that became the governing principles of modern nation states. In other words, sexual selection is an expression of Michel Foucault's biopolitics, in which political power is exercised by states not through the contracts of liberal governance but through the management of population-level phenomena. Furthermore, by contextualizing sexual selection in this theoretical framework, it becomes possible to more clearly emphasize the importance of race in the rise of modern biopolitics.