Lidio Cipriani (17 March 18928 October 1962) was an anthropologist, university teacher and explorer from

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

Education and academia

He made his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

Natural Science Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

, became docente of Anthropology at the

University of Florence The University of Florence (Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Firenze'', UniFI) is an Italian public research university located in Florence, Italy. It comprises 12 schools and has around 50,000 students enrolled. History The first universi ...

and Director of the Istituto e Museo Nazionale di Antropologia in the same university. In 1924 Cipriani was awarded the International Broca Prize of Paris for Anthropology. He distinguished himself by a long period of exploration and field work in several continents and among a large number of tribes and population of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

Southwest Asia Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions. It is almost entirely a part of the Middle East, and includes Anat ...

and

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Research

As an exponent of the anthropometric school, Cipriani was particularly interested in systematic measurements (

cranial Standard anatomical terms of location are used to unambiguously describe the anatomy of animals, including humans. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position pro ...

, but also of hands, feet, and all other kinds of body parts), and he was also fond of making plaster facial moulds made from life, for which he procured models among the populations he encountered. Cipriani's three journeys in Africa were documented by a large number of photographs and the chronicle was reported in his book ''In Africa dal Capo al Cairo'' (‘In Africa from the Cape to Cairo’) (1932): over 600 pages of anthropological,

zoological Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and dis ...

botanical Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

and

geological Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Eart ...

information. His Indian work started in the South, in collaboration with the late Prof. Anantha K. Iyer and his work on the

physical anthropology Biological anthropology, also known as physical anthropology, is a scientific discipline concerned with the biological and behavioral aspects of human beings, their extinct Hominini, hominin ancestors, and related non-human primates, particularly ...

of the Toda (Arch. per l'Antrop. e la Etnol. LXVII, 1937 XV) and of the

Coorg Kodagu (also known by its former name Coorg) is an administrative district in the Karnataka state of India. Before 1956, it was an administratively separate Coorg State, at which point it was merged into an enlarged Mysore State. It occupies ...

Kuruba Kuruba is a Hindu caste native to the Indian state of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. They are the third-largest caste group in Karnataka. Traditionally, they were agriculturalists and cattle farmers. The origins of kuruba i ...

, Ierava etc. (Idem, LXV, 1935) throws new light on these populations. Later, as a Foreign Fellow of the

Anthropological Survey of India Anthropological Survey of India (AnSI) is the apex Indian government organisation involved in anthropological studies and field data research for human and cultural aspects, working primarily in the fields of physical anthropology and cultural ...

he collaborated with the late Dr. B. S. Guha in his work on the

Onge The Onge (also Önge, Ongee, and Öñge) are an Andamanese ethnic group, indigenous to the Andaman Islands in Southeast Asia at the Bay of Bengal, currently administered by India. They are traditionally hunter-gatherers and fishers, but als ...

Little Andaman Island Little Andaman Island (Onge: ''Gaubolambe'') is the fourth largest of the Andaman Islands of India with an area of 707 km2, lying at the southern end of the archipelago. It belongs to the South Andaman administrative district, part of the I ...

. Cipriani died in his native Florence at the age of seventy on the 8 October 1962. A committed

fascist Fascism is a far-right, Authoritarianism, authoritarian, ultranationalism, ultra-nationalist political Political ideology, ideology and Political movement, movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and pol ...

, Cipriani was one of the authors of the

Manifesto of Race The "Manifesto of Race" ( it, "Manifesto della razza", italics=no), otherwise referred to as the Charter of Race or the Racial Manifesto, was a manifesto which was promulgated by the Council of Ministers on the 14th of July 1938, its promulgation ...

, published on 14 July 1938 in ''

Il Giornale d'Italia ''Il Giornale d'Italia'' is an Italian online newspaper. It was founded in Rome in 1901 by the prestigious liberal politicians Sidney Sonnino and Antonio Salandra, both of which were part of the Liberal Constitutional Party. The original paper c ...

''. He began working at the Racial Office and contributing to

Telesio Interlandi Telesio Interlandi (20 October 1894 – 15 January 1965) was an Italian journalist and propagandist. He was one of the leading advocates of antisemitism in Fascist Italy. Born in Chiaramonte Gulfi, Interlandi took his degree in law and became a ...

's journal ''La difesa della razza'' almost from its inception.

Works

* * * ''The Andaman Islanders''. By Lidio Cipriani. Edited and translated by D. Taylor Cox, assisted by Linda Cole. New York:

Frederick A. Praeger Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. (GPG), also known as ABC-Clio/Greenwood (stylized ABC-CLIO/Greenwood), is an educational and academic publisher (middle school through university level) which is today part of ABC-Clio. Established in 1967 as Gre ...

. 1966.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cipriani, Lidio Italian anthropologists People from the Province of Florence 1892 births 1962 deaths Italian explorers Italian fascists