The antediluvian humankind imag in the textbooks used in Spanish Secondary Education (1845-1900)

Abstract

The introduction to contents related to the acceptance of the Fossil Man in the History and Natural History textbooks used in the Spanish Secondary Education during the second half of the 19th Century is analysed in this paper. Special attention is paid to those texts which show mistrust towards Prehistory and rejection to the application of the transmutation theories to the origin of humankind. It is proved that those positions are more radical and frequent in the History textbooks. Finally, the alternatives used by these textbooks in order to adhere to a non-prehistoric explanation of the past are assessed.