Charles Gabriel Seligman FRS FRAI (24 December 1873 – 19 September 1940) was a British

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and

ethnologist Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology) ...

. His main ethnographic work described the culture of the

Vedda people The Vedda ( si, වැද්දා , ta, வேடர் (''Vēḍar'')), or Wanniyalaeto, are a minority indigenous group of people in Sri Lanka who, among other sub-communities such as Coast Veddas, Anuradhapura Veddas and Bintenne Vedd ...

of Sri Lanka and the

Shilluk people The Shilluk ( Shilluk: ''Chollo'') are a major Luo Nilotic ethnic group of Southern Sudan, living on both banks of the river Nile, in the vicinity of the city of Malakal. Before the Second Sudanese Civil War the Shilluk also lived in a number ...

of the Sudan. He was a professor at

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

and was highly influential as the teacher of such notable anthropologists as Bronisław Malinowski,

E. E. Evans-Pritchard Sir Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard, Kt FBA FRAI (21 September 1902 – 11 September 1973) was an English anthropologist who was instrumental in the development of social anthropology. He was Professor of Social Anthropology at the University ...

and

Meyer Fortes Meyer Fortes FBA FRAI (25 April 1906 – 27 January 1983) was a South African-born anthropologist, best known for his work among the Tallensi and Ashanti in Ghana. Originally trained in psychology, Fortes employed the notion of the "person ...

all of whose work overshadowed his own. Seligman's work promoted

scientific racism Scientific racism, sometimes termed biological racism, is the pseudoscience, pseudoscientific belief that empirical evidence exists to support or justify racism (racial discrimination), racial inferiority, or racial superiority.. "Few tragedies ...

and he was a proponent of the

Hamitic hypothesis Hamites is the name formerly used for some Northern and Horn of Africa peoples in the context of a now-outdated model of dividing humanity into different races which was developed originally by Europeans in support of colonialism and slavery. ...

, according to which, some civilizations of Africa were thought to have been founded by

Caucasoid The Caucasian race (also Caucasoid or Europid, Europoid) is an obsolete racial classification of human beings based on a now-disproven theory of biological race. The ''Caucasian race'' was historically regarded as a biological taxon which, de ...

Hamitic Hamites is the name formerly used for some Northern and Horn of Africa peoples in the context of a now-outdated model of dividing humanity into different races which was developed originally by Europeans in support of colonialism and slavery. T ...

peoples. Since the 1960s the Hamitic hypothesis, along with other theories of "race science", has become entirely discredited in science.

Life

Seligman was born into a middle class Jewish family in London, the son of wine merchant Hermann Seligmann (Charles shortened his name to Seligman after 1914). He studied medicine at St Thomas' Hospital. After several years as a physician and pathologist, he volunteered his services to the 1898 Cambridge University expedition to the Torres Strait. He later joined expeditions to

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

(1904), Ceylon (1906–1908), and Sudan (1909–1912, again in 1921–1922). In 1905, Seligman married Brenda Zara Salaman, who he accompanied on their many expeditions and whom he credited in his publications. She was educated at Bedford College and was skilled at languages and she was able to observe ceremonies that Charles was not allowed to see. From 1913 to 1934, he served as chair of Ethnology at the

, where the Anthropology department maintains the Seligman Library in his name. From 1933 he edited the Cresset Historical Series, a book series published by the

Cresset Press The Cresset Press was a publishing company in London, England, active as an independent press from 1927 for 40 years, and initially specializing in "expensively illustrated limited editions of classical works, like Milton's '' Paradise Lost''" go ...

in London. Seligman was also a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...

Works

Hamites

Seligman is most remembered for his detailed ethnographical work ''Races of Africa'' (1930), which recognises four major distinct races of the African continent: Bushmanoids ( Bushmen),

Pygmies In anthropology, pygmy peoples are ethnic groups whose average height is unusually short. The term pygmyism is used to describe the phenotype of endemic short stature (as opposed to disproportionate dwarfism occurring in isolated cases in a pop ...

Negroid Negroid (less commonly called Congoid) is an obsolete racial grouping of various people indigenous to Africa south of the area which stretched from the southern Sahara desert in the west to the African Great Lakes in the southeast, but also to i ...

s, and Caucasoids (

Hamites Hamites is the name formerly used for some Northern and Horn of Africa peoples in the context of a now-outdated model of dividing humanity into different races which was developed originally by Europeans in support of colonialism and slavery ...

). The Hottentots, Seligman maintains are a mixture of Bushmanoid, Negroid and Hamitic. As a staunch proponent of the Hamitic theory, in his work Seligman asserts that

Caucasoid North and Northeast Africans were responsible for introducing non-Semitic

Afro-Asiatic languages The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, Erythraean or Lisramic, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic su ...

( Berber-

Cushitic The Cushitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken primarily in the Horn of Africa, with minorities speaking Cushitic languages to the north in Egypt and the Sudan, and to the south in Kenya and Tanzania. As o ...

Egyptian Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...

) into Africa, as well as civilization, technology and all significant cultural developments. In his book, Seligman states his belief that:

"Apart from relatively late Semitic influence...the civilizations of Africa are the civilizations of the Hamites, its history is the record of these peoples and of their interaction with the two other African stocks, the Negro and the Bushmen, whether this influence was exerted by highly civilized Egyptians or by such wider pastoralists as are represented at the present day by the Beja and Somali....The incoming Hamites were pastoral Caucasians – arriving wave after wave – better armed as well as quicker witted than the dark agricultural Negroes."Edith R. Sanders, "The Hamitic Hypothesis: Its Origin and Functions in Time Perspective," ''Journal of African History'', 10 (1969), 521–532

Following

Giuseppe Sergi Giuseppe Sergi (March 20, 1841 – October 17, 1936) was an Italian anthropologist of the early twentieth century, best known for his opposition to Nordicism in his books on the racial identity of Mediterranean peoples. He rejected existing racia ...

's (1901) classification of the Hamites, Seligman divides the Hamites into two groups: (a) "Eastern Hamites" and (b) "Northern Hamites". The former include the "ancient and modern Egyptians... the Beja, the Berberines (Barbara and

Nubians Nubians () ( Nobiin: ''Nobī,'' ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the region which is now northern Sudan and southern Egypt. They originate from the early inhabitants of the central Nile valley, believed to be one of the earliest cradles of ...

), the Galla, the Somali, the

Danakil Danakil may refer to: * Danakil people or Afar people, an ethnic group in the Horn of Africa *Danakil Depression, a desert basin in north-eastern Ethiopia and southern Eritrea *Danakil Desert, a desert in the Horn of Africa *Danakil Depression or A ...

and... Ethiopians". The latter branch includes the Berbers and the "Taureg and Tibu of the Sahara, the Fulbe of Western Sudan and the extinct Guanche of the Canary Islands". Seligman acknowledged varying degrees of Negroid admixture amongst the Hamitic groups, but emphasized throughout his major works the essential racial and cultural unity of the various Hamitic peoples. In his ''Some Aspects of the Hamitic Problem in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan'' (1913), he writes that the Northern and Eastern Hamitic "groups shade into each other, and in many parts a Negro admixture has taken place, nevertheless, culturally if not always physically, either division stands apart from its fellow."C.G. Seligman, "Some Aspects of the Hamitic Problem in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan", ''The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland'', Vol. 43 (Jul. – Dec., 1913), pp. 593–705. The Hamites in general, and the Northern Hamites in particular, he asserted, have close "kinship with the European representatives of the

Mediterranean race The Mediterranean race (also Mediterranid race) was a historical race concepts, historical race concept that was a sub-race of the Caucasian race as categorised by anthropology, anthropologists in the late 19th to mid-20th centuries. According to ...

".Charles Gabriel Seligman, ''The Races of Africa'', (Oxford University Press, 1967), 4th ed. p.62. Drawing from Coon, Seligman also discusses fairer features observed amongst a minority of Berbers or Northern Hamites, such as lighter skin, golden beards and blue eyes. ''Races of Africa'', however, notably questions the belief held by some anthropologists in the early 20th century that these fairer traits, such as blondism, were introduced by a Nordic variety. In addition, Seligman laid stress on the common descent of Hamites with

Semites Semites, Semitic peoples or Semitic cultures is an obsolete term for an ethnic, cultural or racial group.

''Races of Africa''

''Races of Africa'' (1930) upon publication received positive reviews. It was considered to be the first major published work in English on the ethnography of Africa, widely regarded as an "ethnological classic". The anthropologist

Alfred L. Kroeber Alfred Louis Kroeber (June 11, 1876 – October 5, 1960) was an American cultural anthropologist. He received his PhD under Franz Boas at Columbia University in 1901, the first doctorate in anthropology awarded by Columbia. He was also the first ...

in a review praises the book for its "vast amount of accurate information" in such concise form. The first book edition was published by Home University Library and later in the same year by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, and was used in many universities, in history and anthropology classes through to the late 1970s. ''Races of Africa'' was also revised four times, Seligman published a second revised edition in 1939, a year before his death: "Additions to the original edition published nine years ago include a note on the importance of the Boskop skull…an account of the Pygmies as described by Paul Schebesta and a slight alteration in the classification of the linguistic stocks of the Guinea Coast". A third edition (revised) appeared in 1957, which was later reprinted by demand in 1959 and 1961. This edition is notable as it was "brought up to date" by over a dozen anthropologists, and was very well received. A final revised edition was published in 1966 and the book was republished up to 1979.

Selected works

*''Melanesians of British New Guinea'' (1910) *'' The Veddas'' (1911) with Brenda Seligman *''Some Aspects of the Hamitic Problem in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan'' (1913) *''Races of Africa'' (1930, 1939,1957,1966) *''The Pagan Tribes of Nilotic Sudan'' (London: Routledge, 1932) with Brenda Seligman He and his wife's papers are held at the

References

External links

Seligman biography at Minnesota State University EMuseum

Catalogue of the Seligman papers
at th

of the

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Seligman, Charles Gabriel British ethnologists British Jews Jewish anthropologists 1873 births 1940 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Presidents of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland