Politické sjednocení Itálie a budování národní demoetnoantropologie

The study describes the building of anthropology and the disciplines connected to it during the first years of the Italian state. The schools of thinking inspired by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and those of Darwinian inspiration are compared, and the text explains how Italian scientists discovered modern ethnography and folklore studies. The study focuses on several prominent personalities of what is now defined in Italy as demo-ethno-anthropology, such as Paolo Mantegazza, Giustiniano Nicolucci, Giuseppe Pitre, Cesare Lombroso and Angelo De Gubernatis. Less memorable figures are also mentioned in detail as well as their contribution to Italian and European ethnology. The study analyses strengths and weaknesses of Italian ethnology, as well as their development during the 19th century. Emphasis is placed on the perception of the substantial cultural distance between northern and southern Italy.These lands, after their annexation to the Italian Kingdom, became a field of research for ethnographers and anthropologists, and a place to experience the new racist theories that were at that time formed within the positivist science, too.