 | This article includes a list ofgeneral references, butit lacks sufficient correspondinginline citations. Please help toimprove this article byintroducing more precise citations.(January 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Giuseppe Sergi | |
|---|---|
 Giuseppe Sergi | |
| Born | (1841-03-20)March 20, 1841 |
| Died | 17 October 1936(1936-10-17) (aged 95) |
| Known for | Mediterraneanism |
| Parent(s) | Paolo Sergi and Alessandra Sergi (née Brigandì) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Biological anthropology |
| Institutions | |
Giuseppe Sergi (March 20, 1841 – October 17, 1936) was anItalian anthropologist of the early twentieth century, best known for his opposition toNordicism in his books on theracial identity of Mediterranean peoples. He rejected existing racial typologies that identified Mediterranean peoples as "dark whites" because they implied a Nordicist conception of Mediterranean peoples descending from whites who had become racially mixed with non-whites which he claimed was false. His concept of theMediterranean race, identified Mediterranean peoples as being an autonomous brunet race and he claimed that the Nordic race was descended from the Mediterranean race whose skin had depigmented to a pale complexion after it moved north. This concept became important to the modelling of racial difference in the early twentieth century.
Born inMessina,Sicily, Sergi first studied law and then linguistics and philosophy. At the age of 19 he took part inGaribaldi's expedition to Sicily.[1] He later took courses in physics and anatomy, finally specializing in racial anthropology as a student ofCesare Lombroso.
In 1880 he was appointed as professor of anthropology at theUniversity of Bologna. At this time the discipline of anthropology was still associated with the literature faculty. In the following years, thanks to the activity of his laboratory of anthropology and psychology, he helped establish the discipline on a more scientific basis. In 1884 he moved to theUniversity of Rome where he developed a program of research into both anthropology and psychology. He was elected as a member to theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1885.[2]
On 4 June 1893, the Sergi took the lead in founding the Roman Society of Anthropology (now the Italian Anthropological Institute (Istituto Italiano di Antropologia).[3][4] He also began the journalAtti della Società Romana di Antropologia (now theJournal of Anthropological Sciences). Both the society and journal were associated with the university. He was initially assigned temporary premises in the School of Application for Engineers inSan Pietro in Vincoli but in 1887 moved to the old building of the Roman College, where Sergi dedicated part of the space to the creation of an anthropological museum.
Internationally renowned for his contributions to anthropology, he also succeeded in establishing the International Conference of Psychology in Rome, 1905, under his presidency of the society.
He died atRome in 1936. His son Sergio Sergi (1878–1972), also a noted anthropologist, developed his father's theories.
Sergi's initial contribution was to oppose the use of thecephalic index to model population ancestry, arguing that over allcranial morphology was more useful.[4] However, Sergi's major theoretical achievement was his model of human ancestry, fully articulated in his booksHuman Variation (Varietà umane. Principio e metodo di classificazione) andThe Mediterranean Race (1901), in which he argued that the earliest European peoples arose from original populations in theHorn of Africa, and were related toHamitic peoples. This primal "Eurafrican race" split into three main groups, theHamites, theMediterranean race and the north EuropeanNordic race. Semitic people were closely related to Mediterraneans but constituted a distinct "Afroasian" group.[4] The four great branches of the Mediterranean stock were theLibyans orBerbers, theLigurians, thePelasgians and theIberians.Ancient Egyptians were considered by Sergi as a branch of the Hamitic race.
According to Sergi the Mediterranean race, the "greatest race in the world", was responsible for the great civilisations of ancient times, including those ofEgypt,Carthage,Greece andRome. These Mediterranean peoples were quite distinct from the peoples of northern Europe.[4]
Sergi argued that the Mediterraneans were more creative and imaginative than other peoples, which explained their ancient cultural and intellectual achievements, but that they were by nature volatile and unstable. In his bookThe Decline of the Latin Nations he argued that Northern Europeans had developed stoicism, tenacity and self-discipline due to the cold climate, and so were better adapted to succeed in modern civic cultures and economies.[4]
These theories were developed in opposition toNordicism, the claim that the Nordic race was of pureAryan stock and naturally superior to other Europeans. Sergi ridiculed Nordicists who claimed that the leading Greeks and Romans were of Nordic background and argued that the Germanic invasions at the end of the Roman Empire had produced "delinquency, vagabondage and ferocity". Sergi believed that the Aryans were originally "Eurasiatic" barbarians who migrated from theHindu Kush into Europe. He argued that the Italians had originally spoken aHamitic language until the Aryan (Indo-European)Italic language spread across the country. Some Aryan influence was detectable in Northern Italy, but, racially speaking, Italians were unaffected by Aryan migrants.[4]
Sergi expanded on those theories in later publications. Despite his denigration of Aryans and emphasis on Mediterranean racial identity, he denied that he was motivated by national pride, asserting that his works had the "goal of establishing the veracity of the facts without racial prejudice, without diminishing the value of one human type in order to exalt another one."[4]
His last book,The Britons (1936), sought to trace the rise of theBritish Empire to the Mediterranean component of the British population.[4]
Giuseppe Sergi, concurrent withWilliam James andCarl Lange (the three independently), developeda theory of emotions[5][6] according to which emotion is the mind's perception of physiological conditions that result from some stimulus.
| History of Messina | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monuments and places | |||||||||||||||
| Personalities |
| ||||||||||||||
| Parks & nature reserves | |||||||||||||||
| Sport events | |||||||||||||||
| Transportation & infrastructure | |||||||||||||||
