doi: 10.4436/jass.89001 JASs Historical Corner Journal of Anthropological Sciences Vol. 89 (2011), pp. 59-69 Giuseppe Sergi, “champion” of Darwinism? Alessandro Volpone 1,2 1) Seminario di Storia della Scienza, Università degli Studi di Bari, Piazza Umberto I, 1, 70121 Bari, Italy e-mail: [email protected] 2) Unità di Storia della Scienza e Archivio Storico, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn di Napoli, Villa Comunale, 80122 Napoli, Italy Summary – The Italian anthropologist, psychologist and evolutionist Giuseppe Sergi (1841-1936) may be regarded in some respects today as an “atypical” Darwinist, but, almost paradoxically, he was considered a “champion” of Darwinism by colleagues and commentators of his own time. Probably, two aspects of his work are responsible for this apparent anomaly: his faith in the so-called soft inheritance and his claims regarding a theory concerning the polyphyletic origin of human races. The soft inheritance theory, however, was needed by Sergi to support ideas regarding the complexity of inheritance in man, a fact that, in his opinion, could not completely be put down to mechanical laws, and polygeny was useful when trying to rectify the problem concerning the incompleteness of the fossil record. In both cases, it is possible to show that he was involved in supporting Darwinian theory during the most severe crisis of its consensus in Italy and at International level, between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. Finally, the apparent unorthodox features which can be found in Sergi’s ideas appear to be, in Kuhnian terms, ad hoc hypotheses put forward by Sergi himself in order to support the paradigm. Keywords – Natural selection, Soft inheritance, Acquired characters, Panselectionism, Transitional fossils, Polygenic theories of evolution. Introduction can be considered to be a faithful interpreter of Giuseppe Sergi (1841-1936) was one of the guidelines and impulses of his era. the fathers of (physical) Anthropology in Italy. As a high school teacher in Milan, initially, However, this was the culmination of an eclec- he held a position of theoretical philosophy. In tic and varied long professional career. He is also 1880, he began to teach anthropology at the considered one of the founders of psychology in University of Bologna, and a year later the psy- our country, and in particular was involved in chiatrist Enrico Morselli (1852-1929) called him the development of the experimental approach up to become a member of the editorial board of (being among the first to adopt such a system the Rivista di filosofia scientifica (1881-1891), the in Europe). Attracted by the debate concerning leading journal of Italian Positivism. In 1881, he Darwinism, he was initially interested in psy- edited the Italian version of The Data of Ethics chology from a physiological point of view. He (1879), by Herbert Spencer (1820-1903). In even cultivated philosophy and education. Sergi 1884, he went to the University of Rome, the should be regarded as an intellectual who was fully new capital of the Savoy Kingdom of Italy (fol- active in the positivist and reductionist phase in lowing Turin and Florence), to become chair- which scientific thinking was going through in man of anthropology at the Faculty of Sciences, the early decades of the ‘800 and ‘900. In fact, he University “La Sapienza”, where he established the JASs is published by the Istituto Italiano di Antropologia www.isita-org.com 60 Giuseppe Sergi, “champion” of Darwinism? the Institute of Anthropology and organised a Soon after the foundation of the Società Romana remarkable Museum. di Antropologia, there was a fracture with Paolo The second half of the nineteenth century Mantegazza, who had previously been Sergi’s men- is precisely the moment when, across Europe tor for about twenty years. There are two trends in and overseas, ethnographic, anthropological and late nineteenth-century Italian study in anthropol- prehistoric museums were being founded (in a ogy: a philological-linguistic one, based on cultural physical anthropology sense). This was, in fact, aspects, and a medical-biological one, based on the the era of Paul Broca, who taught anthropology analysis of physical characteristics. The two trends in Paris and who spent his time trying to lay the remained united, as an epistemological integrated foundations for an anthropometry which can whole until the outbreak of World War I. However, be considered a real science: a science that can right from the very beginning, many authors were be reproduced, because it is based on “standard- inclined towards one trend or the other. Sergi’s ized” – as we would say today – measurements professional activity followed the second trend, and indices. This is also the time when the along with that of his master, Mantegazza, and his well-known anatomical-pathologist Rudolph colleague Cesare Lombroso (1836-1909). From Virchow and Gustav Schwalbe, a paleoanthro- an institutional point of view, Mantegazza had a pologist, were working in Germany (Bernard, very centralist attitude, while intellectually he nar- 2002; Fabietti, 2000). The latter is perhaps the rowed the general field of anthropology to more true father of human palaeontology (since he purely biomedical aspects. Sergi, while remaining happened to study a Neanderthal skeleton found within the limits of “physical” anthropology, also in 1856, and the remains of a pithecanthropus considered the environmental and historical-cul- found in Java in 1891). Returning to Italy, this is tural aspects of individuals, populations and races also the time of Paolo Mantegazza (1831-1910) of man. In this respect, he aligned particularly e Giustiniano Nicolucci (1819-1904). Together closely to the positions of Lombroso, with whom with Giuseppe Sergi, they are the great “fathers” he shared the idea that Darwinism had to consider of (physical) anthropology in our nation, the first anatomical and physiological characters, without, based in Florence (from 1869) and the second however, neglecting the cultural and behavioral based in Naples (from 1880). Genuine “schools” aspects (Frigessi, 2003). In 1896, Sergi publicly of thought and scientific activity were created declared that he no longer considered himself to be around them, which dealt with the natural his- a disciple of Mantegazza. In fact, he resigned from tory of man. In Turin, however, and other Italian the Società Italiana di Antropologia of Florence, cities, this role was assumed by zoologists such the first Italian society of anthropology, founded by as Filippo de Filippi and Michele Lessona, or his master (Pasini, 1999; Chiarelli & Pasini 2002). anatomists such as Antonio Garbiglietti (Manzi, Like Nicolucci and Mantegazza in Italy, and many 1984-85, 1987; Cresta et al., 1993; Facchini, authors abroad, Sergi considered the analysis and 1993; Pogliano, 1993; Puccini, 1991, 1993). classification of the skull as the most significant In 1893, Sergi established the Società point for the distinction of human races and pro- Romana di Antropologia (the name was later posed new descriptive methods in craniology, argu- changed to Istituto Italiano di Antropologia) ing that the better the morphological examination and started the publication of the Proceedings is, the better is the final classification. Sergi started of the Society, entitled Atti della Società Romana his far-reaching and original scientific work in di Antropologia (1893-1910; later Rivista di Anthropology around 1880, and continued almost Antropologia, 1911-2003, and now Journal of until his death. Two aspects are of particular impor- Anthropological Sciences, 2004- ), a journal which tance: the establishment of a classification system tried to introduce innovative trends in anthropo- in craniology based on morphological characters of logical investigations performed through inter- the skull, rather than on measuring lines and angles, disciplinary approaches. or using index calculations; and the formulation of A. Volpone 61 new hypotheses concerning the origin and spread Sergi, like many other scientists of the end of the of European human races from Africa. Eighteenth century who considered themselves Sergi supported the establishment of an observ- to be Darwinists, freely mentions the inheritance atory for the anthropological and physio-psycho- of acquired characters in his works and by doing logical studies of children of school age (in which so supports the concept of evolution by natu- scholars such as Maria Montessori also worked), ral selection. From this point of view, he can be according to the ideal of physical, social and moral considered a typical author. Sergi, for example, improvement which was typical of the Belle époque, believed that different environments produce called “hygienist utopy” (Pogliano, 1984a). At distinct variations of organisms, and that exter- the mature age of 71, Sergi became interested in nal conditions of life have a certain influence on Eugenics together with a small group of compa- living beings. In a work of 1893, he writes: triots who participated in the first International Conference of Eugenics held in London in 1912. “We ignore the state of the primitive human type, or He was one of the most fervent supporters of the primitive types, considered in all their internal eugenics in our country, but the management of and external characters, [...] and the reason for this, the Italian movement was controlled above all by which is easy to understand, depends on factors scholars of statistics