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The Lost White Tribe: Explorers, Scientists, and the Theory that Changed a Continent
In 1876, in a mountainous region to the west of Lake Victoria, Africa--what is today Ruwenzori Mountains National Park in Uganda--the famed explorer Henry Morton Stanley encountered Africans with what he was convinced were light complexions and European features. Stanley's discovery of this African "white tribe" haunted him and seemed to substantiate the so-called Hamitic Hypothesis: the theory that the descendants of Ham, the son of Noah, had populated Africa and other remote places, proving that the source and spread of human races around the world could be traced to and explained by a Biblical story.
In The Lost White Tribe, Michael Robinson traces the rise and fall of the Hamitic Hypothesis. In addition to recounting Stanley's "discovery," Robinson shows how it influenced others, including that of the Ainu in Japan; or Vilhjalmur Stefansson's tribe of "blond Eskimos" in the Arctic; or the 9,000-year-old skeleton found in Washington State with what were deemed "Caucasian features." As Robinson shows, race theory stemming originally from the Bible only not only guided exploration but archeology, including Charles Mauch's discovery of the Grand Zimbabwe site in 1872, and literature, such as H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines, whose publication launched an entire literary subgenre dedicated to white tribes in remote places. The Hamitic Hypothesis would shape the theories of Carl Jung and guide psychological and anthropological notions of the primitive.
The Hypothesis also formed the foundation for the European colonial system, which was premised on assumptions about racial hierarchy, at whose top were the white races, the purest and oldest of them all. It was a small step from the Hypothesis to theories of Aryan superiority, which served as the basis of the race laws in Nazi Germany and had horrific and catastrophic consequences. Though racial thinking changed profoundly after World War Two, a version of Hamitic validation of the "whiter" tribes laid the groundwork for conflict within Africa itself after decolonization, including the Rwandan genocide.
Based on painstaking archival research, The Lost White Tribe is a fascinating, immersive, and wide-ranging work of synthesis, revealing the roots of racial thinking and the legacies that continue to exert their influence to this day.
In The Lost White Tribe, Michael Robinson traces the rise and fall of the Hamitic Hypothesis. In addition to recounting Stanley's "discovery," Robinson shows how it influenced others, including that of the Ainu in Japan; or Vilhjalmur Stefansson's tribe of "blond Eskimos" in the Arctic; or the 9,000-year-old skeleton found in Washington State with what were deemed "Caucasian features." As Robinson shows, race theory stemming originally from the Bible only not only guided exploration but archeology, including Charles Mauch's discovery of the Grand Zimbabwe site in 1872, and literature, such as H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines, whose publication launched an entire literary subgenre dedicated to white tribes in remote places. The Hamitic Hypothesis would shape the theories of Carl Jung and guide psychological and anthropological notions of the primitive.
The Hypothesis also formed the foundation for the European colonial system, which was premised on assumptions about racial hierarchy, at whose top were the white races, the purest and oldest of them all. It was a small step from the Hypothesis to theories of Aryan superiority, which served as the basis of the race laws in Nazi Germany and had horrific and catastrophic consequences. Though racial thinking changed profoundly after World War Two, a version of Hamitic validation of the "whiter" tribes laid the groundwork for conflict within Africa itself after decolonization, including the Rwandan genocide.
Based on painstaking archival research, The Lost White Tribe is a fascinating, immersive, and wide-ranging work of synthesis, revealing the roots of racial thinking and the legacies that continue to exert their influence to this day.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2016
13 people are currently reading
289 people want to read
About the author
Michael F. Robinson
2 books10 followersMichael F. Robinson is a professor of history at Hillyer College, University of Hartford. He is the author of The Coldest Crucible: Arctic Exploration and American Culture (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), winner of the 2008 Book Award for the History of Science in America, and The Lost White Tribe: Explorers, Scientists, and the Theory that Changed a Continent (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016) winner of the History of Science Society's Davis Prize.
Robinson has given lectures about his work at the American Museum of Natural History, The Explorers Club, The British Library, the Library of Congress, and NASA headquarters among others. He is a frequent guest on radio and television programs including American Experience, BBC World Service, the Smithsonian Channel, and the Travel Channel and has been a news source for the Wall Street Journal, the Christian Science Monitor, the Associated Press, and USA Today.
He hosts the exploration podcast Time To Eat the Dogs .
Robinson has given lectures about his work at the American Museum of Natural History, The Explorers Club, The British Library, the Library of Congress, and NASA headquarters among others. He is a frequent guest on radio and television programs including American Experience, BBC World Service, the Smithsonian Channel, and the Travel Channel and has been a news source for the Wall Street Journal, the Christian Science Monitor, the Associated Press, and USA Today.
He hosts the exploration podcast Time To Eat the Dogs .
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 21, 2018
The best book I've read in this year (though there are still about two months to come), better than what I thought it would be. Starting from the story of Stanley spotting a "white tribe" in Africa, the book gives a profound insight into the development, or let say the evolution, of the Hamitic Hypothesis as well as how it has influenced the world and shaped people's perception. The book includes a wide range of historical events and stories of different explorers and scientists that have happened in a wide range of geographical locations, from the far east to the New World, from the Inuit in the arctic circle to the Central American tribe on the equator, yet the structure is not messy at all. Extending from the rumor of white tribe, the author digs deep into the central of it all, the Hamitic Hypothesis.
I especially love the last chapter. The author has kept an objective tone through out the whole book, while in this very last part he added in more of his personal feeling with the description of his journey in the Rwenzori Mountains, where Stanley claimed to be home to the lost white tribe. At the end of the book, he has made a beautiful twist and given the so-called lost white tribe a brand new definition born from his personal experience in Rwenzori and several years of research, a journey in another way, that he has gone through for completing this book.
I especially love the last chapter. The author has kept an objective tone through out the whole book, while in this very last part he added in more of his personal feeling with the description of his journey in the Rwenzori Mountains, where Stanley claimed to be home to the lost white tribe. At the end of the book, he has made a beautiful twist and given the so-called lost white tribe a brand new definition born from his personal experience in Rwenzori and several years of research, a journey in another way, that he has gone through for completing this book.
February 2, 2021
Highly recommended. Thoroughly enlightening and informative. The author clearly took time to research and reveal an unknown history to today's society. The book leads one into a deeper understanding of white supremacy and it's seismic, global power in shaping world events, societal structures, empire, and myth-making, past and present. It will reshape and broaden your perspective on the human condition.
October 25, 2021
Interesting thought provoking book, mainly based on a religious story, that carry's not proof, but a good read.
October 31, 2015
The pleasure of a non-fiction book derives from the journey it takes you upon and the information it imparts. Leaving aside any issues of technical accuracy, some books do a magnificent job of this -- Salt and the Frozen Water Trade spring to mind along with books by Jared Diamond and Stephen Jay Gould. Others sound like they'll deliver a great read but cannot deliver on their promise.
The Lost White Tribe falls rather in the middle of the bunch. It explores the "Hamitic" hypothesis, a theory that Africa had been populated by the descendants of Noah's son Ham. It details the desire of European society and its colonies to find native tribes in their own image. with explorers searching from Africa to Tibet. This worldview was, of course, both pernicious and ridiculous -- but exploring the history of ridiculous people and ridiculous ideas can be enlightening. Such works benefit from a proper treatment that balances academic coverage with readability.
The Lost White Tribe was, sadly, a little too dense for light vacation reading. As much fun as it is to learn about Henry Morton Stanley, of "Mr. Livingstone, I presume" (he never actually said that) fame and his supposed encounter with an African tribe that displayed typical European phenotypes, the book itself was a bit dreary. While the writing was engaging, its telling was less H. Rider Haggard than endless historic textbook.
It takes a light touch to transform Victorian obsessions about race, and historical overviews about mythical characters like Prester John and his lost Christian nation, into a book that pulls you along into unwrapping an historic mystery. The Lost White Tribe had some great moments but more often than not it dragged. The parts I loved the best were the discussions of how languages became a precursor for genetic studies, and I honestly wish that bit of the book had been expanded and explored to a volume of its own.
It's hard to fault a book for delivering what it promised: a fascination with racist world views, which I was well bored by the halfway point. To be fair, I doubt I'm Robinson's target audience, although I do read a fair number of books from academic publishers.
I see in the Lost White Tribe a book that could have been more entertaining given enough editorial time and hedge trimmers. As it stands, it's a worthy document to an unworthy obsession.
A galley of this manuscript was provided for review by Netgalley. I go strictly by the Goodreads rating system these days. Three stars means "I liked it", not "it was mediocre".
The Lost White Tribe falls rather in the middle of the bunch. It explores the "Hamitic" hypothesis, a theory that Africa had been populated by the descendants of Noah's son Ham. It details the desire of European society and its colonies to find native tribes in their own image. with explorers searching from Africa to Tibet. This worldview was, of course, both pernicious and ridiculous -- but exploring the history of ridiculous people and ridiculous ideas can be enlightening. Such works benefit from a proper treatment that balances academic coverage with readability.
The Lost White Tribe was, sadly, a little too dense for light vacation reading. As much fun as it is to learn about Henry Morton Stanley, of "Mr. Livingstone, I presume" (he never actually said that) fame and his supposed encounter with an African tribe that displayed typical European phenotypes, the book itself was a bit dreary. While the writing was engaging, its telling was less H. Rider Haggard than endless historic textbook.
It takes a light touch to transform Victorian obsessions about race, and historical overviews about mythical characters like Prester John and his lost Christian nation, into a book that pulls you along into unwrapping an historic mystery. The Lost White Tribe had some great moments but more often than not it dragged. The parts I loved the best were the discussions of how languages became a precursor for genetic studies, and I honestly wish that bit of the book had been expanded and explored to a volume of its own.
It's hard to fault a book for delivering what it promised: a fascination with racist world views, which I was well bored by the halfway point. To be fair, I doubt I'm Robinson's target audience, although I do read a fair number of books from academic publishers.
I see in the Lost White Tribe a book that could have been more entertaining given enough editorial time and hedge trimmers. As it stands, it's a worthy document to an unworthy obsession.
A galley of this manuscript was provided for review by Netgalley. I go strictly by the Goodreads rating system these days. Three stars means "I liked it", not "it was mediocre".
July 4, 2016
A very interesting book. Robinson discusses 18th and 19th century theories on race, which evolved from Biblical theories regarding Moses, his sons and the repopulation of the world following the Deluge. This was superseded by more "scientific" theories regarding biometrics, archeology, linguistics and the results of European exploration of previously isolated areas.
The intellectual gymnastics that 19th century authorities had to go through in order to justify European domination of Asian and African peoples (whether in the form of colonization or slavery) is explored in the book, but the most interesting part for me were the theories where Caucasian races MUST have had their own civilization in Africa (in the case of Zimbabwe) or explained the mound builders in America. These theories all had the same basis in that they believed Asia was the wellspring of the Human race and NOT Africa, which we now know is the case.
These theories are significant in that the Nazis later bought into the idea of an "Aryan race" (which in fact was a common Aryan language, NOT a race) and in popular culture the idea of a lost white civilization somewhere in Africa found its way into literature and movies. A fascinating topic!
The intellectual gymnastics that 19th century authorities had to go through in order to justify European domination of Asian and African peoples (whether in the form of colonization or slavery) is explored in the book, but the most interesting part for me were the theories where Caucasian races MUST have had their own civilization in Africa (in the case of Zimbabwe) or explained the mound builders in America. These theories all had the same basis in that they believed Asia was the wellspring of the Human race and NOT Africa, which we now know is the case.
These theories are significant in that the Nazis later bought into the idea of an "Aryan race" (which in fact was a common Aryan language, NOT a race) and in popular culture the idea of a lost white civilization somewhere in Africa found its way into literature and movies. A fascinating topic!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews