Label:
Jukes family members, by Arthur Estabrook, about 1910
Description:
DNAi location:
Chronicle>Threat of the Unfit>epilogue
In general, eugenicists were lax in defining the criteria for measuring many of the "traits" they studied, and they were too quick to force their data to fit into simple Mendelian templates. American eugenicists sought genetic explanations of human behavior to the almost total exclusion of environmental or social circumstances. Ominously, "pauperism" and "social dependency" were interpreted as genetic problems, rather than a financial ones. In retrospect, eugenicists' pedigrees of faulty genes are striking examples of lack of education and opportunity.
Biological elements:
Concepts precesses:
eugenics
Tools & methods :