Thursday, April 22, 2010

BYU mag {oops}

Anna-Lisa gets the credit for this, since she was the one who noticed it.
The BYU mag that they force on send to the graduates had something rather shocking that I'm sure they didn't intend to post. There was this sorta lit mag that BYU Academy starting producing in 1897 called White and Blue that the library has been digitizing. I'm sure in the article they posted this excerpt from the old mag because one of the articles was about a new honor code in 1912.
They really should have looked at the other article on the right titled:
PROFESSOR RASMUSSEN ON EUGENICS
Subtitled:
SOME FUNDAMENTALS UNDERLYING EUGENICS

Holy cow. What on earth?!

Anyway, I know that you're all dying to read the whole ghastly thing. So I'll post the PDF download links here to the four pages that contain the article.
Enjoy his matter of fact discussion of how cells and their goop work and how this information is used as a way to bolster the science of Eu(blech)genics.
at

5 comments:

  1. Unknown23 April, 2010 07:16

    What the CRAP????!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. M23 April, 2010 09:47

    Oh wow. It is interesting to note, though, that the stuff this guy is writing about as cutting-edge new stuff is now sort of basic high school biology class. Why one earth did he feel the need to use this discussion to support the eugenics movement? (At least it seems to me he's making an endorsement) Of course, there are all of those sketchy talks about miscegenation that happened at BYU in the 60s and 70s, right? Or am I very much wrong on that?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jared Blanco23 April, 2010 17:33

    now i understand why we can't have beards at the Y.

    ReplyDelete
  4. rantipoler24 April, 2010 09:09

    Ha! I never realized there was an "increase in the proportion of feeble mindedness in various forms" in the early 1900s. How does one scientifically measure "feeble mindedness"? And I agree with Em - it is so interesting that he even has to explain what (he thinks) a cell is, which is basic knowledge for us.

    I couldn't believe it when I saw this in the BYU mag. Don't they have editors?! Also, Rasmussen is a family name. I hope I'm not related. :P

    ReplyDelete
  5. Vanessa Swenson24 April, 2010 12:16

    My guess would be that they would look at a race that they saw as "feeble minded" and then look at the variations in their cell goop and declare that the measurement of feeblemindedness.
    The idea of anti-miscegenation always has some trumped up root in stuff like this, right? And it always seems to be "we feel better than so-and-so people. Thus we jimmied up these bogus reasons."
    I think that could fairly describe a large chunk of the 60s & 70s at BYU, beards and "What the CRAP????!!!!"

    ReplyDelete