Lidio Cipriani (17 March 1892 8 October 1962) was an anthropologist, university teacher and explorer from

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

Education and academia

Cipriani first trained and worked as an elementary school teacher like his father. He then volunteered for the military and served in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. As of 1920 Cipriani studied

natural science Natural science or empirical 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 ...

s and graduated in 1923, became docent of anthropology at the

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

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. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

Southwest Asia West Asia (also called Western Asia or Southwest Asia) is the westernmost region of Asia. As defined by most academics, UN bodies and other institutions, the subregion consists of Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Mesopotamia, the Armenia ...

and

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Research

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

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

, 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 ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...

botanical Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

and

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

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 natural science discipline concerned with the biological and behavioral aspects of human beings, their extinct hominin ancestors, and related non-human primates, particularly from ...

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

Coorg Kodagu district () (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 ...

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, these are shepherds who used to do the work of sheep/goat and animal ...

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

Anthropological Survey of India The Anthropological Survey of India (AnSI) is an Indian government organisation involved in anthropological studies and field data research, primarily engaged in physical anthropology and cultural anthropology, while maintaining a strong focu ...

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, India. They are traditionally hunter-gatherers and fishers, but also practice plant cultivatio ...

of Little Andaman Island. In the summer of 1942, Cipriani arrived in

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

which was then under Axis occupation. With the aim of anthropologically studying the Cretans, he traveled from one end of the island to the other and took anthropological measurements on 2,375 men and women, most of whom he photographed. At the same time he captured activities and tasks, ceremonies, habits, houses, landscapes, archaeological sites and elements of the fauna and flora of Crete. In May 1943 he published in Florence his study "Creta e l'origine mediterranea della civiltà", in which he included a small fraction of the material he had collected in Crete. His archive was rediscovered in 2012 and latter published in its entirety in a bilingual (Greek/Italian) book. Cipriani died in his native Florence at the age of seventy on the 8 October 1962. A committed

fascist Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...

, Cipriani was one of the authors of the

Manifesto of Race The "Manifesto of Race" (), otherwise referred to as the Charter of Race or the Racial Manifesto, was an Italian manifesto promulgated by the government of Benito Mussolini on 14 July 1938. Its promulgation was followed by the enactment, in Octo ...

, published on 14 July 1938 in '' Il Giornale d'Italia''. He began working at the Racial Office and contributing to Telesio Interlandi'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. 1966.

References

External links

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