Physical Evolution of the Foot and its Further Implications
| Author | Cava Falcucci and Fredrick Calfilo |
|---|---|
| Original title | Evolución Física del Pie y sus Implicaciones Adicionales |
| Country |  Rakeo |
| Language | Creeperian (original) Quebecshirite Salisfordian Jackian |
| Subject | Evolution of Sequoyans |
| Genre | Pseudoscience, anti-Sequoyan racism |
Physical Evolution of the Foot and its Further Implications is a 1924 treatise written by Cava Falcucci and Fredrick Calfilo which argues that the lack of social and industrial progress (referred to in the text as progress towards civilization) in the nation of Sequoyah is attributable to deficient genetics that appear as different phenotype of the feet. The book was originally written in Creeperian and was later translated into Quebecshirite and Salisfordian. A translation in Jackian was created in 1990.
Contents
Summary
Preface
In an introduction written by Fredrick Calfilo, the work is prefaced with the following; "Many have tried to summarize the situation in Sequoyah, inevitably facing difficulties in both diagnosing the malaise of its people and determining what remedy is required." Calfilo says later in the introduction, "[w]e aim to derive the problem and its solution for the betterment of both Sequoyah and Sur."
Chapter I
Chapter I, Sequoyan stagnation – A multi-century mystery outlines the first claim of the authors; that Sequoyah has continuously fallen behind comparable countries in Sur. The industrial output of major Sequoyan cities is compared relative to other nation's cities, and technological progress, or lack thereof, is also discussed in detail.
Chapter II
Chapter II,Phenotypic analysis of foot structure and intelligence, contains the data that Cava Falcucci collected in studies between 1926 and 1929. He claims that the midtarsal break was present in all 133 ethnically pure Sequoyan subjects that he interviewed in the three year period, dramatically decreased in frequency in those with mixed Creeperian-Sequoyan backgrounds, and was not present in any totally non-Sequoyan subjects.
Chapter III
Chapter III, Possible solutions to the problems of Sequoyah outlines a plan by which Sequoyah would be dismantled as a state and apportioned to bordering states, with a subsequent description of how a system of eugenics could be put into place; "Soon all Sequoyans would be assigned partners by the state, while one person may not be able to bleach the carried stain of Sequoyah, a systemized process may well be equipped to do so."
Conclusion
In their conclusion, Calfilo and Falcucci wrote, "[t]he feet of Surians are by large extent uniquely adapted to agrarian lifestyles that became the mainstay of modern civilization. It is only in the feet of the Sequoyans in which the soles remain primitive to the point of resembling baser primates" They propose that even if their plan (outlined in chapter three) is not undertaken, interbreeding between other Surians and Sequoyans may one day improve the genetics of Sequoyans, but caution of possible societal harm of "persons with the faculties of men but the morality of monkeys."
Reception, criticism, and legacy
Critics have decried the book as a prime example of Anti-Sequoyan sentiment, a gross misuse of anthropology, and as unmistakably racist. A rebuttal paper written in 1952 alleges that Cava Falcucci either fabricated his data entirely, or cherrypicked his results. The scientific consensus in the Journal of Anthropology for 1980 was clear: "Use of the midtarsal break (which is present in all ethnic groups to varying degrees) for racial or ethnic denigration is now clearly pseudoscientific, and associated with the most ugly of actors".
