Description
Book Synopsis
Declared Defective is the anthropological history of an outcaste community and a critical reevaluation of The Nam Family, written in 1912 by Arthur Estabrook and Charles Davenport, leaders of the early twentieth-century eugenics movement. Based on their investigations of an obscure rural enclave in upstate New York, the biologists were repulsed by the poverty and behavior of the people in Nam Hollow. They claimed that their alleged indolence, feeble-mindedness, licentiousness, alcoholism, and criminality were biologically inherited.
Declared Defective reveals that Nam Hollow was actually a community of marginalized, mixed-race Native Americans, the Van Guilders, adapting to scarce resources during an era of tumultuous political and economic change. Their Mohican ancestors had lost lands and been displaced from the frontiers of colonial expansion in western Massachusetts in the late eighteenth century. Estabrook and Davenport’s portrait of inna
Trade Review
"Declared Defective will be of interest to scholars of Native North America, the Progressive Era, the history of science, and race and ethnicity."—Mikaëla M. Adams, Journal of American Ethnic History
“A well-researched, fast-paced, compact, and gracefully written examination of Progressive Era eugenics and the complex origins, historical development, and significance of a mixed-race, outcast community. Declared Defective is an important contribution to the history of anthropology, science, racial thought, and Native Americans.”—John David Smith, Charles H. Stone Distinguished Professor of American History at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte
“This powerful story of colonial dispossession, race relations, and rural impoverishment is as relevant as ever in a world where once again many are inclined to naturalize socioeconomic inequality.”—Paul Nadasdy, associate professor of anthropology at Cornell University
“Declared Defective will contribute considerably to histories and discussions of race in America, which is normally geared to a conversation around issues of black and white—literally and metaphorically. Connecting the colonial past with the scientific racism of the twentieth century is a unique contribution.”—Brenda Macdougall, chair of Métis research and associate professor of geography, environment, and geomatics at the University of Ottawa
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Series Editors’ Introduction
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Menace in the Hollow
1. Native Americans and Eugenics
2. Border Wars and the Origins of the Van Guilders
3. A “New” Homeland and the Cradle of Guilder Hollow
4. From Pioneers to Outcastes
5. The Eugenicists Arrive
6. Deconstructing the Nam and the Hidden Native Americans
7. Demonizing the Marginalized Poor
Conclusion: The Myth Unravels
Notes
Bibliography
Index
