Abstract
A human selective breeding programme took place in a North American bible communist community, Oneida, between 1869 and 1879. It was probably the first such breeding experiment of the modern era, and for this reason, we might expect it to have been influential for the subsequent eugenics movements. Although it attracted much attention in its day, its longer-term influence seems to have been surprisingly slight, largely because its specific context meant that it was not a model that provided an acceptable way to reach eugenics goals.
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank S. Smalley and I. Singh for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper and many other colleagues and friends who have assisted in numerous ways in my research on the Oneida Community. My research on everyday understanding of inheritance is supported by a grant from the Wellcome Trust.
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Cold Spring Harbor Eugenics Archive
The Oneida Community Collection
Glossary
- HEREDITARIAN
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Relating to the view that heredity is the primary influence on human characteristics.
- PERFECTIONISM
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A Christian religious doctrine that holds that the second coming has occurred and so a sinless perfection is obtainable on Earth, or, more generally, a philosophical doctrine of the possibility of moral, social and political perfection.
- PHRENOLOGY
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The (nineteenth century) scientific study of mental faculties, including their physical embodiment as indicated by the shape of the cranium.
- POSITIVISM
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A philosophical system (especially as postulated by the French philosopher Auguste Comte) that recognizes only that which can be scientifically verified or which can be logically or mathematically proven.
- PURITANS
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A group of English Protestants who regarded the Reformation of the church inadequate and sought to simplify and regulate the forms of worship.
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Richards, M. A nineteenth-century experiment in human selective breeding. Nat Rev Genet 5, 475–479 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg1352
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg1352
