986 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST
forces” (p. 78). The emphasis on the social-
ization of children should be concerned with
the social structure of the familial unit along
with the nature of the socialization activities
in relation to this structural unit. A growing
body of literature reviewed by Forum 1 4 of
the White House Conference on Children
1970 seriously begins to call into question
the definition of what is the appropriate
form of the family. What was once assumed
to be a deviant and disorganized family form
may, in fact, become quite functional and
acceptable. One of the primary reasons for
this change is that individuals of all races are
living in a wide variety of familial units.
Therefore, the family forms thought a t one
time to be unique t o the Blacks are found
among all races. What then seems to be
important is the product of the socialization
process. What effect does being a Black
American socialized in a particular family
structure, with its decision making mechan-
isms, limitations, and resources, have upon
the self esteem, motivation, intellectual and
emotional development, performance, and
physical and mental health of the individual?
Baughman’s treatment of intelligence and
scholastic performance is timely in light of
the current attention being given to Jensen
and his dissenters. However, I would have
been more satisfied if the author had ex-
panded his discussion of the different com-
p o n e n t s of intelligence and scholastic
performance to include data on how these
are related to adult role performance and
occupational achievement. Likewise, it
would have been in order to address the
relationship of rage and aggression to violent
behavior. These comments should indicate
the stimulating and provocative nature of
this short book rather than point out its
shortcomings.
Reference Cited
Baughman, E. Earl, and W.Grant Dahlstrom
1968 Negro and White Children: A
Psychological Study in the Rural South.
New York: Academic Press.
Neither Black Nor White: Slavery and Race
Relations in Brazil and the United States.
CARL N. DEGLER. New York: Mac-
millan, 1971; London: Collier-Macmillan,
[74,1972]
1971. xiv + 302 pp., tables, index. $6.95
(cloth).
Reviewed by MAXINE MARGOLIS
University of Fiorida
In recent years there has been an increas-
ing volume of comparative studies on slave
systems in North and South America and
their effect on race relations in those con-
tinents. Beginning with Tannenbaum’s well
known work, Slave and Citizen, first pub-
lished in 1946, followed by Elkins’ Slaoery
(1959) Harris’s Patterns o f Race in the
Americas (1964), Klein’s Slavery in the
Americas (1967), and now, Degler’s Neither
Black Nor White, there has been a growing
debate concerning the nature of slavery in
the former Latin and English colonies. The
lines have been drawn between scholars who
believe that slavery in the Latin countries
was a more humane institution than it was in
those regions colonized by the British and
Dutch, and those who insist that it is a
fruitless task to discuss which country’s slave
system was more or less cruel since there is
overwhelming evidence indicating the total
inhumanity of all New World slavery.
Generally, those adhering t o the former posi-
tion argue that Latin American religious
beliefs and legislation provided a degree of
protection t o the slave which was totally
absent in the British and Dutch contexts.
Those taking the opposing view insist that
differences in ideology and written legal
codes had little or no influence on the actual
treatment of slaves in the two areas in
question.
Degler’s work Neither Black Nor White
adds new fuel t o the debate since it contains
a good deal of data o n Brazilian slavery
never before published in English. For ex-
ample, he provides us with estimates of
suicide rates among Brazilian slaves and con-
cludes that they were higher than those in
North America. Degler points out that slaves
in Brazil were allowed to bear arms under
certain conditions and often were employed
to defend plantations and mines, a situation
which he maintains never occurred in the
United States where the white population
was of more than adequate size for defensive
purposes. Finally, and perhaps most impor-
tantly, Degler offers new data on the posi-
tion of the free Negro in Brazil, a position
 OTHER 98 7

which contrasted dramatically with that of inner burdens of color,” the psychological
his North American counterpart. effects of prejudice and discrimination.
Two of Degler’s conclusions concerning According to Degler, the key to differ-
the nature of Brazilian slavery certainly will ences in race relations in Brazil and the
startle the proponents of the Tannenbaum- United States is t h e different position of the
Elkins thesis which argues that Latin Ameri- mulatto in the t w o countries. “In Brazil the
can slavery was more humane than that of mulatto is not a Negro, whereas in the
the North. F o r one, he presents data that United States he is, Out of this seemingly
slight difference. . . the divergence in race
proves there was little o r n o difference in the
legal definition of the slave in Brazil and the relations in the t w o countries grew” (p. xii).
United States. In both countries the slave Because Brazilian society distinguishes be-
was defined, somewhat contradictorily, as tween the Negro and t h e mulatto, an
both chattel property and as a human being. “escape hatch” from the disabilities of dark
I n addition. Degler convincingly demon- skin is open to some people of color. This
strates that Brazilian slavery was harsher circumstance insures that a sense of “solidar-
physically than North American slavery. The ity” does not arise among the non-White
main thrust of his argument is that “slavery population, that segregation solely o n the
in the United States was able to endure o n basis of color is difficult, and that social
the basis of reproduction alone. At the very discontent among Blacks is lessened for “the
least, that fact offers testimony t o a better barriers that hold back mulattoes in the
standard of physical circumstance and care United States, regardless of class o r educa-
than a system of slavery that did not re- tion, are much less rigid in Brazil” (p. 195).
produce itself” (p. 69). The central question a t this point is:
What factors in Brazilian history, which were
In the preface to his work, Degler sets presumably absent in the United States, led
himself two primary tasks: “ t o find out to the development of the “mulatto escape
whether slavery in Brazil differed sub- hatch”? I t is here that Degler’s analysis is
stantially from that in the United States” weak; he fails t o pinpoint these factors,
and to “account for the difference in race merely suggesting a number of different
relations in Brazil and the United States” (p. items which might explain the presence of
x). He succeeds admirably in his first goal by this phenomenon in Brazil. These include
not only summarizing virtually all of the the differences in the ratio between the
research on the problem done by scholars sexes in the North American colonies and
who preceded him, but also by contributing Brazil, t h e rigidity of class lines, the lack of
a substantial amount of fresh data which opportunity for upward mobility, the low
further clarify the question. After reviewing value placed o n manual labor, and the
the facts which he presents, the reader can limited economic opportunities in Brazilian
hardly argue with his contention that “dif- society. Unfortunately, Degler never draws
ferences in the practices of slavery in Brazil these diverse suggestions together into a
and the United States can be quite adequate- coherent theory. Rather, he seems t o con-
ly accounted for by the accidents o f geo- clude that the ultimate explanation for the
g r a p h y , d e m o g r a p h y , and economy presence of t h e “escape hatch” in Brazil and
. . . rather than by differences in the laws its absence in t h e United States lies in the
and practices of the church and state regard- contrasting cultural value systems of the two
ing slavery” (p. 92). countries. “Without seeking t o determine
Degler is less successful, however, in his which came first, social development or
attempts to explain the contrasting features ideology, it is evident that the mulatto
of contemporary race relations in Brazil and escape hatch was as compatible with Brazil-
the United States. Before coming to grips ian social thought as it was incompatible
with the problem, he devotes two chapters with the thought of North Americans” (p,
to descriptions of the current situation in 264).
Brazil. These include discussions of the rela-
tionship between social class and race, the References cited
definition of racial terms, common racial Elkins, Stanley M.
stereotypes, and what Degler terms “the 1959 Slavery: A Problem in American
988 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [74,1972]
Institutional and Intellectual Life. and the industrial devastation of the planet,
Chicago: University of Chicago Press. by a complex of child-rearing practices char-
Harris, Marvin acteristic of White Anglo-Saxon cultures for
1964 Patterns of Race in the Americas. the past three centuries. Yet, as Kovel points
New York: Walker.
Klein, Herbert S. out, even Luther attached deep significance
1967 Slavery in the Americas: A Com- t o the fact that he received his divine inspira-
parative Study of Cuba and Virginia. tion to reform the church while seated upon
Chicago: University of Chicago Press. the privy!
Tannenbaum, Frank Kovel’s “psychohistorical approach”
1946 Slave and Citizen: The Negro in emphasizes the “unconscious meaningfulness
the Americas. New York: Alfred A. of culture as a synthetic organism” and is to
Knopf.
be distinguished from t h e “psychohistory”
of Robert Jay Lifton’s studies, which
emphasize the “historical [unctions of na-
Inslitutional Racism in America. LOUIS L. tional character.’’ Applied to racism, Kovel’s
KNOWLES and KENNETH PREWITT, analytic method attempts t o derive the
eds. Appendix by Harold M. Baron. Engle- symbolism and fantasies underlying the
wood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1969. xii + phenomenon and to study their historical
180 pp., tables, index. $5.95 (cloth). emergence and transformations. For Kovel,
continuity in cultural symbolism through
White Racism: A Psychohistory. JOEL
historical epochs is grounded “in the univer-
KOVEL. New York: Random House sal realities of the life of the body, and the
(Pantheon), 1970. vii + 300 pp., figures,
experiences of infancy, which are the refer-
appendix, bibliographical note, index. ence points of human knowledge and the
$7.95 (cloth). bedrock of the structure of culture” (p. 7).
Reviewed by RUTH B. MCKAY Applied to the study of history, Kovel’s
George Washington University psychoanalytic theory implies a belief that
human instinctual conflict, when projected
Looking through very different theoreti- onto culture, is one of the crucial deter-
cal lenses, psychiatrist Kovel and the politi- minants of historical power. This historical
cal scientist-seminarian team of Knowles and power is in some way derived along with,
Prewitt have produced studies of White rac- and not from, race symbols and fantasies.
ism with a high degree of overlap. White The mental attitudes necessary for power
racism, both volumes conclude, it not to be and racism in our culture are generated from
understood as resting on so recent an his- a common ground-“a view of the universe
torical institution as slavery, nor as per- that takes t h e symbols of whiteness and
petuated into the present by the bigoted blackness with a deadly seriousness, spread-
actions of a minority of prejudiced individu- ing them o u t t o the whole of human activ-
als. Instead, they find that racism against ity” (p. 9).
Black people has permeated the institutions As those of Freudian persuasion might
of our psyches and our social orders from have anticipated, the instinctual conflict un-
the first meeting of White European and derlying t h e drive to power and the origin of
Black African. While Knowles and Prewitt’s racist thinking is to be found in the anal
social structural study eschews psychological stage of development and the further
causes, such as finding the Black man’s rage elaboration of anal concerns during the suc-
and present plight rooted in the pathogenic ceeding Oedipal stage.
conditions of the ghetto, Kovel’s psychologi-
cal causes are found rooted in the fantasy Certain nuclear ideas, such as those
and reality structures of White society. revolving about the concepts of dirt and
Some of Kovel’s explanations will be hard property, take hold of the personality dur-
ing this stage of development, and remain
t o take for a n y but the most psychoanalytic- through life associatively linked to the idea
ally-oriented reader. He explains a wide of excrement.. . dirt corresponds t o that
variety of behaviors, from the continued which is hated in his excremental activ-
suppression of Blacks’ civil rights and t h e i t i e s . . . [ a n d ] becomes symbolically
war in southeast Asia to the Protestant Ethic generalized to include anything which can