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How Charles Darwin Got Emotional Expression out of South Africa (and the People who Helped Him)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2003

Robert Shanafelt
Affiliation:
Georgia Southern University

Extract

The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals Darwin makes brief reference to a “curious document” obtained from a South African man whom he described as the brother of a prominent chief (1965 [1872]:22). This document was received, not during the brief stop made by the Beagle at the Cape in 1836, but thirty-two years later as a written response to a questionnaire about emotion that Darwin had sent by post to various institutions and associates around the globe. He suggests that he found this response most interesting because it was the only one to come directly from a “native,” and was even more amazing in having come from the hand of one able to write down his own responses. It was from a man who referred to himself as “Christian Gaika, brother of Chief Sandilli.”

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2003 Society for Comparative Study of Society and History

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