Giuseppe Sergi

Giuseppe Sergi (1841 – 1936) was an influential Italian anthropologist of the early twentieth century, notable for his opposition to Nordicism (cf. Nordic race) in his books on the racial identity of ancient Mediterranean peoples.

Life

Born in Messina, Sicily, Sergi was a student of Cesare Lombroso. When he became university professor in 1880, 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. He developed a program of research into both psychology and the anthropology. In 1893 he founded the Roman Society of Anthropology.

According to Sergi, the Mediterranean race arose from primal populations in North Africa, and was related to Hamitic peoples. Sergi claimed that the Mediterraneans, the Africans and the Nordics all originated from an original "Eurafrican Race". According to Sergi the Mediterranean race, the "greatest race of the world", was responsible for the great civilisations of ancient times, including those of Egypt, Carthage, Greece and Rome. These Mediterranean peoples were quite distinct from the peoples of northern Europe. To Sergi the Semites were a branch of the Eurafricans who were closely related to the Mediterraneans.

Sergi was strongly opposed to the use of the cephalic index to model poulation ancestry, arguing that cranial morphology was more useful.

Internationally renowned for his contributions to anthropology, he succeeded in establishing the International Conference of Psychology in Rome, 1905, under his presidency.

He died at Rome in 1936. His son Sergio Sergi, also a noted anthropologist, developed his father's theories.