Photo: Renty, 1850
Organizers behind a petition that has been circling the Internet since May, 2007 seek to convince the UNESCO World Heritage Committee to rename Agassizhorn, a 3,946-meter Swiss peak named in honor of glaciologist and prolific racist, Louis Agassiz.
The “de-mounting Louis Agassiz” campaign was spearheaded by Sasha Huber, an artist residing in Finland, who recently landed a helicopter on the mountaintop in August 2008 with television crews to present a plaque to rename the mountain ‘Rentyhorn’. The name choice is to commemorate Renty, a slave from the Congo on a South Carolina plantation, whose daguerreotype picture was commissioned by Louis Agassiz in order to “scientifically prove the inferiority of the black race”.
It’s difficult to find much out about this effort, as most of the information about it is only available in Swiss, French or German. However, the issue of renaming the mountain could spark interesting dialogue here in the U.S. where mountains in Utah and California and a park in Arizona all carry Agassiz’ name as well.
Agassiz is an iconic figure that is considered one of the first world-class American scientists. Born in Switzerland in May, 1807 he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and doctor of medicine in Europe before moving to the United States in 1846 where he taught at Harvard, Cornell and Charlestown and continued to do research that led, amongst other things, to him being the first to scientifically propose that the earth was subject to an ice age.
But Agassiz had other, more disturbing scientific interests.
According to Wikipedia…
He was considered a leading writer in the genre of scientific racism and a firm believer and advocate in polygenism, that races came from separate origins (specifically separate creations), were endowed with unequal attributes, and could be classified into specific climatic zones, in the same way he felt other animals and plants could be classified.
Agassiz denied that species originated in single pairs, whether at a single location or at many. He argued instead that multiple individuals in each species were created at the same time and then distributed throughout the continents where God meant for them to dwell. His lectures on polygenism were popular among the slaveholders in the South; for many this opinion legitimized the belief in a lower standard of the Negro.
Louis Agassiz’ name is far reaching. Besides being the handle of numerous peaks all over the planet and an ancient glacial lake that formed in the Great Lakes region of North America, a crater on Mars and a promontorium on the moon are also named in his honor.
This effort isn’t the first time the name of a mountain has been reconsidered based on cultural sensitivity.
So now it’s up to you to decide: What’s in a name? Should Mount Agassiz, Utah; Mount Agassiz in California’s palisades; and Agassiz Park in Arizona be changed?
I say, why not?
Watch a Swiss newscast of artist Sasha Huber landing on the mountain. It’s in Swiss, but you’ll get the idea. When you get to the page, look for the thumbnail titled, “Neuer Name Fur das Agazzishorn.
[Via: Get Outdoors]
