Abstract:

The second half of the nineteenth century saw the development of statistical studies about Jewish populations written by Jewish authors. Jewish enthusiasm for statistics gave rise to what historians have called Jewish social science or Jewish statistics. This article contributes to scholarship on Jewish social science by challenging the assumption in the literature that statistics was inherently essentialist and drew on race science. This case study is based on an analysis of early twentieth-century socioeconomic studies in Jewish statistical periodicals and, in particular, discussions of Jewish employment structure, or how the Jewish workforce was divided between the main economic sectors. Although this body of statistical research does not necessarily represent Jewish social science as a whole, it offers an opportunity to analyze the relationship between essentialism and statistics. I argue that Jewish social science did not favor the typological thinking that was inherent to race theory in the early twentieth century. Instead, most Jewish statisticians rejected the biologically determined concept of race and were much more inclined toward explanations framed in cultural terms. Yet these explanations also conveyed essentialist tropes about the productive capacities of Jewish workers that were consistent with the language and framework of racial thinking.

摘要：

十九世纪下半叶，由犹太作家撰写的关于犹太人口的统计研究得到了发展。犹太人对统计的热情催生了历史学家所称的犹太社会科学或犹太统计。本文通过挑战文献中的假设，即统计学本质上是本质主义并借鉴了种族科学，从而为犹太社会科学的学术研究做出了贡献。本案例研究基于对 20 世纪早期犹太统计期刊中的社会经济研究的分析，特别是对犹太人就业结构或犹太劳动力如何在主要经济部门之间划分的讨论。尽管这一统计研究机构并不一定代表整个犹太社会科学，它提供了一个分析本质主义和统计学之间关系的机会。我认为，犹太社会科学不赞成 20 世纪初种族理论所固有的类型学思想。相反，大多数犹太统计学家拒绝由生物学决定的种族概念，更倾向于以文化术语进行解释。然而，这些解释也传达了关于犹太工人生产能力的本质主义比喻，这些比喻与种族思维的语言和框架是一致的。大多数犹太统计学家拒绝由生物学决定的种族概念，更倾向于用文化术语进行解释。然而，这些解释也传达了关于犹太工人生产能力的本质主义比喻，这些比喻与种族思维的语言和框架是一致的。大多数犹太统计学家拒绝由生物学决定的种族概念，更倾向于用文化术语进行解释。然而，这些解释也传达了关于犹太工人生产能力的本质主义比喻，这些比喻与种族思维的语言和框架是一致的。