Childhood, identity and human science in the enlightenment

History Workshop Journal

Volumn 57, Issue 1, 2004, Pages 34-57

  Benzaquén, Adriana S ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ADOLESCENT; ARTICLE; BIOMEDICINE; CHILD; CHILD CARE; CHILD REARING; EUROPE; HISTORY; HUMAN; PHILOSOPHY; PRESCHOOL CHILD; PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT;

ADOLESCENT; BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES; CHILD; CHILD CARE; CHILD REARING; CHILD, PRESCHOOL; EUROPE; HISTORY, 17TH CENTURY; HISTORY, 18TH CENTURY; HISTORY, 19TH CENTURY; HUMANS; PHILOSOPHY;

EID: 3042782544     PISSN: 13633554     EISSN: 14774569     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/hwj/57.1.34     Document Type: Article

References (104)

1. Alphonse Leroy, Médecine maternelle, ou l'art d'élever et de conserver les enfans, Paris, 1803, p. xxii.
2. Leroy's work was addressed to young physicians and mothers. Unless otherwise noted, all translations are mine. On the relation between 'moral' (as in 'le moral de l'homme sauvage') and 'physique' see Sergio Moravia, ' "Moral"-"Physique": Genesis and Evolution of a "Rapport"', in Enlightenment Studies in Honour of Lester G. Crocker, ed. Alfred J. Bingham and Virgil W. Topazio, Oxford, 1979, pp. 163-74.
3. Philippe Ariès, Centuries of Childhood: a Social History of Family Life, transl. Robert Baldick, New York, 1962.
4. On the historiography of childhood, see my article 'Childhood, the Sciences of Childhood, and the History of Science', in Multiple Lenses, Multiple Images: Perspectives on the Child Across Time, Space and Disciplines, ed. Hillel Goelman, Sheila Marshall and Sally Ross, forthcoming.
5. See Benzaquén, 'Childhood, the Sciences of Childhood, and the History of Science'.
6. On the 'coming into being' of scientific objects, see Lorraine Daston, 'Introduction: The Coming Into Being of Scientific Objects', in Biographies of Scientific Objects, ed. Lorraine Daston, Chicago, 2000, pp. 1-14.
7. Carolyn Steedman, Strange Dislocations: Childhood and the Idea of Human Interiority, 1780-1930, London, 1995;
8. Charles Taylor, Sources of the Self: the Making of the Modern Identity, Cambridge, 1989;
9. Larry Wolff, 'When I Imagine a Child: the Idea of Childhood and the Philosophy of Memory in the Enlightenment', Eighteenth-Century Studies 31:4, 1998, p. 381.
10. The thirty-six volumes of the Natural History covered man, quadrupeds, birds, minerals, and the earth: Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, 15 vols, Paris, 1749-1767;
11. Histoire naturelle des Oiseaux, 9 vols, 1770-1783;
12. Supplément à l'Histoire naturelle, 7 vols, 1774-1789;
13. Histoire naturelle des Minéraux, 5 vols, 1783-1788.
14. On Buffon's life and work, see Jacques Roger, Buffon: a Life in Natural History, transl. Sarah Lucille Bonnefoi, ed. L. Pearce Williams, Ithaca, 1997
15. and the excellent articles in Buffon 88, ed. Jean Gayon, Jean-Claude Beaune, Serge Benoit, Jacques Roger, Denis Woronoff, Paris, 1992.
16. For a list of editions and translations of the Natural History, see E. Genet-Varcin and Jacques Roger, 'Bibliographie de Buffon', in Œuvres philosophiques de Buffon, ed. Jean Piveteau, Paris, 1954, pp. 513-75.
17. On Buffon's natural history of man, see Michèle Duchet, Anthropologie et histoire au siècle des lumières: Buffon, Voltaire, Rousseau, Helvétius, Diderot, Paris, 1971;
18. Claude Blanckaert, 'Buffon and the Natural History of Man: Writing History and the "Foundational Myth" of Anthropology', History of the Human Sciences 6:1, 1993, pp. 13-50
19. and Phillip Sloan, 'The Gaze of Natural History', in Inventing Human Science: Eighteenth-Century Domains, ed. Christopher Fox, Roy Porter and Robert Wokler, Berkeley, 1995, pp. 112-51.
20. On the relation between Enlightenment human science and gender, see Sylvana Tomaselli, 'The Enlightenment Debate on Women', History Workshop Journal 20, 1985, pp. 101-24
21. and Ludmilla Jordanova, 'Sex and Gender', in Inventing Human Science, pp. 152-83.
22. Buffon, 'De l'enfance' [1749], in Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière vol. 2, p. 445. Subsequent references to the Natural History will be given in the text by volume and page number.
23. John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding [1690;4th edn, 1700], ed. Peter H. Nidditch, Oxford, 1979, pp. 106 and 117.
24. Étienne Bonnot de Condillac, Traité des sensations [1754], Paris, 1984, p. 11
25. and Charles Bonnet, Essai analytique sur les facultés de l'âme [1760], Geneva, 1970, p. 1.
26. On sensationism, see John C. O'Neal, The Authority of Experience: Sensationist Theory in the French Enlightenment, University Park, 1996.
27. On the animated statue, see Julia V. Douthwaite, The Wild Girl, Natural Man, and the Monster: Dangerous Experiments in the Age of Enlightenment, Chicago, 2002.
28. Condillac, La Logique, ou les premiers developpemens de l'art de penser, Paris, 1780, p. 13.
29. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Émile ou de l'éducation [1762], in OElig;uvres complètes, ed. Bernard Gagnebin and Marcel Raymond, vol. 4, Paris, 1969, pp. 241-98.
30. On Buffon and Rousseau, see Otis Fellows, 'Buffon and Rousseau: Aspects of a Relationship', in From Voltaire to La Nouvelle Critique: Problems and Personalities, Geneva, 1970, pp. 33-53;
31. on Émile's influence on eighteenth-century pedagogy, see Gilbert Py, Rousseau et les éducateurs: Etude sur la fortune des idées pédagogiques de Jean-Jacques Rousseau en France et en Europe au XVIIIe siècle, Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 356, Oxford, 1997.
32. Buffon's descriptive/prescriptive account of childhood was cited by philosophes and physicians; see for instance Jacques Ballexserd, Dissertation sur l'education physique des enfans, Depuis leur naissance jusqu'à l'âge de puberté, Paris, 1762
33. and Dissertation sur cette question: Quelles sont les causes principales de la mort d'un aussi grand nombre d'Enfans, & quels sont les préservatifs les plus efficaces & les plus simples pour leur conserver la vie?, Geneva, 1775;
34. Claude Helvétius, De l'homme, de ses facultés intellectuelles, et de son éducation, London, 1773;
35. John Gregory, A Comparative View of the State and Faculties of Man with Those of the Animal World, 1765;7th edn, London, 1777;
36. Guillaume Daignan, Tableau des variétés de la vie humaine... & des Avis très-importans aux Peres & aux Meres sur la Santé de leurs Enfans, de l'un & de l'autre Sexe..., 2 vols, Paris, 1786.
37. According to Humbert-Bazile, even though later research disproved many of Buffon's other theories, 'his eloquent depiction of the physical and moral development of man' remained as valid as 'what is most esteemed in Locke's work';
38. Humbert-Bazile, Buffon, sa famille, ses collaborateurs et ses familiers, ed. Henri Nadault de Buffon, Paris, 1863, pp. 70-1.
39. Rousseau, Discours sur l'origine et les fondemens de l'iné galité parmi les hommes, Amsterdam, 1755;
40. I quote from Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, in The Basic Political Writings, ed. and transl. Donald A. Cress, Indianapolis, 1987, p. 40.
41. Subsequent references to this edition will be given in the text.
42. Buffon, 'Les perroquets' [1779], in Histoire naturelle des Oiseaux vol. 6, pp. 65-9.
43. On Buffon's strategies to avoid censorship, see Roger, Buffon.
44. On monkeys and parrots as exotic pets in the eighteenth century, see Louise E. Robbins, Elephant Slaves and Pampered Parrots: Exotic Animals in Eighteenth-Century Paris, Baltimore, 2002.
45. Condillac, Essai sur l'origine des connoissances humaines: ouvrage où l'on réduit à un seul principe tout ce qui concerne l'entendement humain, Amsterdam, 1746, pp. 258-9.
46. René Descartes, Discours de la méthode [1637], ed. J.-M. Fataud, Paris, 1984, p. 64.
47. Buffon, Addition à l'article de la puberté' [1777], in Supplément à l'Histoire naturelle 4, p. 384.
48. Roger, Buffon, pp. 5-6;
49. see also p. 174.
50. For a critique of Buffon's account of childhood from the perspective of developmental psychology, see Paul Mengal, 'La psychologie de Buffon à travers le traité De l'homme', in Buffon 88, pp. 608-9.
51. The results are in Supplément 4, pp. 376-83.
52. On the scientific importance of this study, see J. M. Tanner, A History of the Study of Human Growth, Cambridge, 1981, pp. 79-85
53. and 102-5. Buffon destroyed all his notes and drafts; see Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles, Voyage à Montbard [1785], in Buffon: Biographie imaginaire et réelle, ed. Yann Gaillard, Paris, 1977, p. 152.
54. Humbert-Bazile, Buffon, pp. 192, 224. Buffon allowed the young Humbert-Bazile, whom he treated as a second son, to participate in the lessons. Buffonet supported the Revolution but was executed during the Terror;
55. see Roger, Buffon, pp. 374-7.
56. Rousseau, letter to Mme de Francueil [1751], and Les Rêveries du promeneur solitaire, in OElig;uvres complètes, vol. 1, Paris, 1959, pp. 1, 431
57. and 1, 089. On Rousseau's children, see William Kessen, 'Rousseau's Children', Daedalus 107:3
58. summer 1978, pp. 155-66.
59. After Rousseau's death, Buffon told Hérault de Séchelles: 'I loved him very much; but when I saw his Confessions, I ceased admiring him. His soul revolted me';
60. Hérault de Séchelles, Voyage à Montbard, p. 155.
61. Magasin encyclopédique7, vol. 6:24, April-May 1802, pp. 547-9;
62. Robert-Marie Reboul, Louis-François Jauffret: Sa vie et ses œuvres, Paris, 1869, pp. 41-2.
63. On changing views of Buffon's scientific accomplishment during the Revolution, see E. C. Spary, Utopia's Garden: French Natural History from Old Regime to Revolution, Chicago, 2000.
64. Louis-François Jauffret, Les Charmes de l'enfance, et les Plaisirs de l'amour maternel, Paris, 1791.
65. I quote from a later, expanded and bilingual (English-German) edition in 4 vols, Paris, 1801, vol. 1, pp. xx-xxii;
66. vol. 1, p. xxx. Subsequent references will be given in the text.
67. For biographical information on Jauffret and a list of his works, see Reboul, Louis-François Jauffret. Jauffret's first literary steps were encouraged by his model Arnaud Berquin, author of the Ami des enfants [1782-1783].
68. Jauffret, 'Introduction aux mémoires de la Société des Observateurs de l'homme' [1801], published by Georges Hervé as 'Le premier programme de l'anthropologie', Bulletins et mémoires de la Société d'anthropologie de Paris 10, 5th series, 1909, pp. 476-87;
69. Magasin encyclopédique 7, vol. 5, 18, January-February 1802, pp. 265-8.
70. On the Observers, see Jean-Luc Chappey, La Société des Observateurs de l'homme (1799-1804): Des anthropologues au temps de Bonaparte, Paris, 2002.
71. The scant surviving documents pertaining to the Observers (besides reports of their meetings in the contemporary press) were published by Reboul and Hervé in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and may also be found in Sergio Moravia, La scienza dell'uomo nel Settecento: Con una appendice di testi, Bari, 1970;
72. Aux Origines de l'anthropologie française: Les Mémoires de la Société des Observateurs de l'Homme en l'an VIII, ed. Jean Copans and Jean Jamin, Paris, 1978;2nd edn, expanded, Paris, 1994
73. and Thierry Gineste, Victor de l'Aveyron: Dernier enfant sauvage, premier enfant fou, Paris, 1981;2nd edn, expanded, Paris, 1993.
74. Magasin Encyclopédique 6, vol. 3, 10, September-October 1800, p. 261.
75. 'Prix proposé par la Société des Observateurs de l'homme, pour l'an 11', Magasin encyclopédique 6, vol. 2, 8, August-September 1800, pp. 533-5.
76. Jauffret, 'Introduction aux Mémoires', p. 482.
77. 'Programme du sujet de prix, proposé pour l'an 12, par la Société des Observateurs de l'Homme', Magasin encyclopé dique 7, vol. 4, 16, December 1801-January 1802, pp. 541-3.
78. 'Prix proposé... pour l'an 11', p. 535.
79. Joseph-Marie Degérando, De la génération des connoissances humaines. Mémoire qui a partagé le prix de l'Académie royale des sciences de Berlin..., Berlin, 1802, pp. 31-2.
80. Degérando's Considérations sur les diverses méthodes à suivre dans l'observation des peuples sauvages [1800] was reprinted in Aux Origines de l'anthropologie française, 2nd edn, pp. 73-109
81. and translated as The Observation of Savage Peoples, ed. and transl. F C. T. Moore, Berkeley, 1969.
82. Roch-Ambroise Cucurron Sicard, Cours d'instruction d'un sourd-muet de naissance, pour servir à l'éducation des sourds-muets, et qui peut être utile à celle de ceux qui entendent et qui parlent, Paris, 1799, excerpted in The Deaf Experience: Classics in Language Education, ed. Harlan Lane, transl. Franklin Philip, Cambridge, 1984, pp. 103-4.
83. On Sicard and the deaf, see Sophia Rosenfeld, A Revolution in Language: the Problem of Signs in Late Eighteenth-Century France, Stanford, 2001.
84. See also 'Conversation avec un sourd-muet', in Les cartons d'un ancien bibliothécaire de Marseille: Variétés bio-bibliographiques, historiques et scientifiques, ed. Robert Reboul, Draguignan, 1875, pp. 51-61
85. (account of a conversation between Jauffret, his brother Gaspard-Jean-André, and Sicard's star pupil Jean Massieu).
86. Jauffret to the administrators of the Saint-Affrique hospice [29 January 1800], reprinted in Gineste, Victor de l'Aveyron, p. 129.
87. See also Philippe Pinel, 'Rapport fait à la Société des Observateurs de l'Homme sur l'enfant connu sous le nom de Sauvage de l'Aveyron' [1800], first published by Georges Hervé as 'Le sauvage de l'Aveyron devant les observateurs de l'homme', Revue anthropologique 21, 1911, pp. 383-98
88. and 441-54, and Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard, De l'Éducation d'un homme sauvage, ou des Premiers développements physiques et moraux du jeune sauvage de l'Aveyron, Paris, 1801.
89. On the controversy surrounding the wild boy's capture and transfer to Paris, see Adriana S. Benzaquén, 'Encounters with Wild Children: Childhood, Knowledge, and Otherness', Ph. D. dissertation, York University, Toronto, 1999.
90. The exception is Chappey, La Société des Observateurs de l'homme.
91. Jauffret, 'Prospectus' to Collection de livres élémentaires [1798] and Voyage au Jardin des Plantes [1798], in Reboul, Louis- François Jauffret, pp. 31 and 27.
92. Jauffret, 'Introduction aux Mémoires'. This passage appears about half-way through the text, and is the only one thus italicized. Presumably it was underlined in Jauffret's manuscript, now lost. (Italics were used in the versions published by Robert Reboul in 1875 and by Georges Hervé in 1909 - see note 25 above - who both had access to the manuscript.) Jauffret's paper for the Observateurs was a programmatic statement, a summary of work already undertaken, and also suggestions for what they might do in the future. It was probably a draft of an introduction to the society's Mémoires (never published), but an alternative title in the manuscript, according to Hervé, was Aperçu des Travaux qui doivent occuper la Société des Observateurs de l'Homme'.
93. Jauffret, 'Introduction aux Mémoires', pp. 483-4;
94. Reboul, Louis-Fran é ois Jauffret, pp. 118-9.
95. See also Charles Louis de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu, Mes pensees, in OElig;uvres complètes, ed. Daniel Oster, Paris, 1964, pp. 967-8;
96. Julien Offray de La Mettrie, Traité de l'âme, in OElig;uvres philosophiques [1751], ed. Francine Markovits, vol. 1, Paris, 1987, p. 242;
97. Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, Lettre sur le progrès des sciences [1752], in OElig;uvres, vol. 2, Lyon, 1756, pp. 428-30.
98. Dietrich Tiedemann, 'Beobachtungen über die Entwickelung der Seelenfähigkeiten bei Kindern', Hessische Beiträge zur Gelehrsamkeit und Kunst 2 and 3, 1787
99. translated as Tiedemann's Observations on the Development of the Mental Faculties of Children', ed. and transl. Carl Murchison and Suzanne Langer, Pedagogical Seminary and Journal of Genetic Psychology 34:2, June 1927, p. 205.
100. Excerpts from Pestalozzi diary of his son's education [1774] are in Roger de Guimps, Pestalozzi: His Life and Work, New York, 1897, pp. 40-8.
101. On early nineteenth-century mothers' diaries of child observation, see Steedman, Strange Dislocations, pp. 68-9.
102. Champagny to Itard [13 June 1806];
103. Dacier, permanent secretary of the Class of History and Ancient Literature of the National Institute, to Champagny [19 November 1806], and Champagny to Itard [26 November 1806], all in Itard, Rapport fait à Son Excellence le Ministre de l'Interieur, sur les nouveaux développemens et l'état actuel du sauvage de l'Aveyron, Paris, 1807, pp. 1, 8 and 6.
104. See also the enthusiastic appraisal of Itard's work in Alphonse Leroy, 'Réflexions sur le rapport fait au Ministre de l'intérieur sur le Sauvage de l'Aveyron, avec des observations sur les causes et le mécanisme de l'intelligence, ou Lettre à M. Itard...', Revue philosophique 9, 21 March 1807, pp. 513-23.