Anthropologists Hit “aryan” Theory; Decry Discrimination

The American Anthropological Association yesterday form ally attacked the “Aryan” theories of racialism, declaring that the terms “Aryan” and “Semitic” have “no social significance whatsoever, “but “simply denote linguistic families.” The thirty-seventh annual conference of the association, which represents 1,100 American anthropologists, unanimously approved a resolution asserting that ” anthropology provides no scientific basis for discrimination against any people on the ground of racial inferiority, religious affiliation or linguistic heritage.”

Prof. Franz Boas of Columbia University, dean of American anthropologists, who moved adoption of the resolution, declared in a statement that Germany was the most “crude” offender and that American scientists must strive to preserve academic and intellectual freedom in the United States. The resolution follows:

“Whereas, the prime requisites of science are the honest and unbiased search for truth and the freedom to proclaim such truth when discovered and known, and whereas, anthropology in many countries, is being conscripted and its data distorted and misinterpreted to serve the cause of an unscientific racialism rather than the cause of truth;

“Be it Resolved, That the American Anthropological Association repudiates such racialism and adheres to the following statement of facts; (1) Race involves the inheritance of similar physical variations by large groups of banking, but its psychological and cultural connotations, if they exist, have not been ascertained by science. (2) The terms Aryan and Semitic have no racial significance whatsoever. They simply denote linguistic families. (3) Anthropology provides no scientific basis for discrimination against any people on the ground of racial inferiority, religious affiliation or linguistic heritage.”