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UNESCO's doctrine of human diversity: A secular soteriology?
Author(s) -
Stoczkowski Wiktor
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
anthropology today
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.419
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1467-8322
pISSN - 0268-540X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8322.2009.00666.x
Subject(s) - doctrine , presupposition , diversity (politics) , sociology , environmental ethics , cultural diversity , law , political science , epistemology , philosophy
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was created in 1945, in the aftermath of the Second World War. Its principal mission, as initially defined, was to establish the conditions of peaceful coexistence between nations. This mission was equivalent to an experiment in social engineering on a global scale, which consisted in working out and disseminating a new worldview based on a revised vision of humankind. In this worldview an important place was granted to a particular vision of human diversity, both cultural and genetic. The paper reconstructs the main presuppositions of UNESCO's doctrine of human diversity and examines theirs historical transformations.