Body and Archive

Though exceedingly lengthy, there are some interesting points made in this article. The whole science or pseudo-science of phrenology has always been an interesting topic to me. The idea that a person's physical characteristics can determine their tendency towards crime is intriguing. There is an obvious connection to the Nazis and some of their practices to find perfect Aryans and their tendency to declare somebody Jewish or otherwise by physical characteristics alone. Each race can be generalized by some common characteristics, which I do not believe to be stereotyping, but assuming them to have a certain personality trait based on physical attributes is a stereotype. On page 363?, there is a Bertillon Card with the picture of a man and various measurements of his features: nose, chin, ear, etc. The odd thing is his name is no where on the card. His characteristics not only identify him, but have become his identity. I am interested in having myself subjected to the science of phrenology to see exactly what my tendencies should be (I have a feeling I'm destined for greatness). One thing that this made me consider was since children's characteristics will change as they grow older, I wondered if people ever attempted to change their physical attributes, maybe creating some primitive form of plastic surgery...probably not.