Nature and Nurture in French Social Sciences, 1859-1914 and BeyondThe prevailing assumption has been that French ethnographers highlighted the cultural and social environment while anthropologists emphasized the scientific study of head and body shapes. Martin Staum shows that the temptation to gravitate towards one pole of the nature nurture continuum often resulted in reluctant concessions to the other side. Psychologists Thodule Ribot and Alfred Binet, for example, were forced to recognize the importance of