The Psychic Unity of Mankind

The history of anthropology is intimately tied to the discovery of what it means to be human. From the time of the Sumerians and Early Egyptians that nature of being human was a significant question investigated by the great thinkers of world cultures like Pythagoras, Buddha, Zoroaster and Confucius among many others. The Chinese voyages of discovery of Chang Ho and the European voyages of the 15th century renewed this inquiry, but for for the West the temptation of conquest and colonialism created ideas of essential difference that lead to modern racism. The process to examine this racist ideology produced a critique of modern society and its values, of slavery and the inequalities of society that drove the early anthropologists to analyze the similarities and differences of human behavior and societies resulting from different cultures. The resulting conclusions created the basic premise of anthropology, of the psychic unity of mankind, instead of the inherent inequality claimed by racism. This anthropology embarked on a great salvage enterprise to save the cultures and languages of the world, but fell victim to the struggle between communism and capitalism.