Sir Arthur Keith FRS[1] FRAI (5 February 1866 – 7 January 1955) was a British anatomist and anthropologist, and a proponent of scientific racism.

Keith claimed that humans had evolved through their tendency to live in small competing communities, which was at root determined by racial differences in their "genetic substrate."

Writing just after World War II, he particularly emphasised the racial origins of anti-Semitism, and in A New Theory of Evolution he devoted a chapter to the topics of anti-Semitism and Zionism in which he argued that Jews had survived by developing a particularly strong sense of community between Jews worldwide based around cultural practices rather than homeland, while applying the "dual code" in such a way that perceived persecution strengthened their sense of superiority and cohesion.

[citation needed] He is also famous for discovering the sinoatrial node, the component of the heart which makes it beat, with his student Martin Flack in 1906.

[5] He was born at Quarry Farm near Old Machar in Aberdeenshire[6] , the son of John Keith, a farmer, and his wife, Jessie Macpherson.

[7] He gave the 1927 presidential address ("Darwin's Theory of Man's Descent As It Stands To-day") to the British Association meeting in Leeds.

[13] In 1925 Raymond Dart announced the discovery of Australopithecus africanus, which he claimed was evidence for an early human ancestor in Africa.

In 1931, with John Walter Gregory, he delivered the annual Conway Hall lecture entitled "Race as a Political Factor".

Phillip Tobias details the history of the investigation of the hoax, dismissing other theories, and listing inconsistencies in Keith's statements and actions.

with Alfred William Hughes Concerning Man's Origins, a book based on his Presidential Address at the British Association in 1927, contains a chapter entitled "Capital as a Factor in Evolution" in which he proposes an interesting explanation for Britain's leading role in the development of industrial society.

Essentially he argues that the cold unwelcoming climate of Britain selected those who came here for a special ability to store food and supplies for the winter – those who didn't died out.

Out of this special population sprang the Industrial Revolution, centred on the colder Northern counties of England like Lancashire and Yorkshire where the high-tech developments of the time took place in spinning and weaving.

Keith’s concluding sentences in this book sums up his thesis: "Even in the modern world we must listen to the voice of Nature.

(p.54) Keith remarks that the 18th century common sense realist philosopher Thomas Reid reached the same conclusion.

Keith concludes that the idea that prejudices "are not artificially acquired, but have been grafted deeply into our natures for particular purposes" is not merely a discovery of Darwinism.

Indeed, from a Christian perspective, these arational feelings must serve some higher survival purpose and are so largely present in life, that they all can't be dismissed as "sin."

Keith wrote his memoir when he was 84, because "a short time hence someone will have to write my obituary notice, so that what I set down now may then prove of service.

"[19] He recounts how he came to pursue his scientific work, and reports on important people whom he met along the way—William Boyd Dawkins, Conan Doyle, Charles Sherrington and others.

Keith's prediction warned against overspecialization: Eighty years ago medicine was divided among three orders of specialists – physicians, surgeons, and midwives.

"The German Führer(Adolf Hitler), as I have consistently maintained, is an evolutionist; he has consciously sought to make the practice of Germany conform to the theory of evolution.

When Hitler set out to conquer Europe, he had entered on that course which brought about the evolutionary destruction of Genghis Khan and his Mongol hordes (see Chapter 34).

We believe it because the only alternative is special creation, and that is unthinkable.This supposed quote is used by creationists in an attempt to demonstrate that Sir Arthur Keith simply dismisses evolutionist viewpoints outright due to a presumed anti-atheistic bias.