Department of Molecular Biology, Umeå University, SE-901 87, Umeå, Sweden.
Hereditas. 2020 Nov 25;157(1):48. doi: 10.1186/s41065-020-00161-x.
The founders of Hereditas envisioned that race biology would be a major subject that had social applications with utmost importance in the near future. Anthropometrics was in this context understood to be the pure and eugenics the applied science. Sweden had a long tradition in physical anthropometry. Herman Lundborg, member of the advisory board of Hereditas, united the anthropometric and eugenic approaches in a synthesis. He was the first head of the Institute for Race Biology in Sweden. The contents of Hereditas reflect the development of race biology in the Nordic countries.
The initial enthusiasm for applied race biology did not last long. In the 1920's Hereditas carried papers on both physical anthropology and eugenics. Most paper dealt, however, with human genetics without eugenic content. Two papers, published in 1921 and 1939 show how the intellectual climate had changed from positive to negative. Finally only human genetics prevailed as the legitimate study of the human race or humankind. A belated defense of eugenics published in 1951 did not help; geneticists had abandoned anthropometrics for good around the year 1940 and eugenics about a decade later. In spite of that, eugenic legislation was amended astonishingly late, in the 1970's. The development was essentially similar in all Nordic countries.
《遗传学报》的创立者设想，种族生物学将是一个具有重要社会应用的主要学科，在不久的将来具有至关重要的地位。体质人类学在这种背景下被理解为纯粹的和应用的优生学科学。瑞典在体质人类学方面有着悠久的传统。《遗传学报》顾问委员会成员赫尔曼·伦德伯格（Herman Lundborg）将体质学和优生学方法结合起来进行综合研究。他是瑞典种族生物学研究所的第一任所长。《遗传学报》的内容反映了北欧国家种族生物学的发展。
对应用种族生物学的最初热情并没有持续多久。20 世纪 20 年代，《遗传学报》发表了关于体质人类学和优生学的论文。然而，大多数论文都涉及没有优生学内容的人类遗传学。1921 年和 1939 年发表的两篇论文表明，知识界的氛围已经从积极转变为消极。最后，只有人类遗传学成为了研究人类种族或人类的合法学科。1951 年发表的一篇关于优生学的迟到辩护并没有起到帮助作用；大约在 1940 年，遗传学家彻底放弃了体质学，大约十年后，优生学也被放弃了。尽管如此，优生学立法的修订却惊人地滞后，直到 20 世纪 70 年代。这种发展在所有北欧国家都基本相似。
