Joseph antenor firmin biography definition

Anténor Firmin was the author of a pioneering work in race and anthropology, De l’égalité des races humaines: Anthropologie positive (1885).

He was perhaps the first anthropologist of African descent. Firmin was born into a working class family on October 18, 1850, in Cap Haitien in northern Haiti.

Joseph antenor firmin biography definition wikipedia

His formal education was entirely in Haiti and included the study of the classics and exposure to the anthropological writings of European scholars. After studying law in Haiti, he became a successful advocate in Cap-Haitien; he later became a diplomat.

Firmin was a product of the third generation of post-independence Haitians who took justified pride in the heroic achievement of the world’s first black republic (Haiti became independent on January 1, 1804).

While serving as a diplomat in Paris from 1884 to 1888, he was admitted to the Paris Anthropological Society, where he was one of three Haitians to observe their proceedings (though he was not encouraged to partic