Physical Anthropology, Race and Eugenics in Greece (1880s-1970s)

355 Pages·2013·2 MB·English

by  Sevasti Trubeta

Physical Anthropology, Race and Eugenics in Greece
(1880s–1970s)
Balkan Studies Library
Editor-in-Chief
Zoran Milutinović, University College London
Editorial Board
Gordon N. Bardos, Columbia University
Alex Drace-Francis, University of Amsterdam
Jasna Dragović-Soso, Goldsmiths, University of London
Christian Voss, Humboldt University, Berlin
Advisory Board
Marie-Janine Calic, University of Munich
Lenard J. Cohen, Simon Fraser University
Radmila Gorup, Columbia University
Robert M. Hayden, University of Pittsburgh
Robert Hodel, Hamburg University
Anna Krasteva, New Bulgarian University
Galin Tihanov, Queen Mary, University of London
Maria Todorova, University of Illinois
Andrew Wachtel, Northwestern University
VOLUME 11
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/bsl
Physical Anthropology,
Race and Eugenics in Greece
(1880s–1970s)
By
Sevasti Trubeta
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2013
Cover Illustration: Design by Alexandra Chaitoglou and Ioanna Varia
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
 Physical anthropology, race and eugenics in Greece (1880s–1970s) / by Sevasti Trubeta.
  pages cm — (Balkan studies library ; 11)
 Includes index.
 ISBN 978-90-04-25766-5 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-25767-2 (e-book) 1. Physical
anthropology—Greece—History. 2. Eugenics—Greece—History. 3. Racism in anthropology—
Greece—History. 4. Greece—Race relations. 5. Greece—Social life and customs. I. Title.
 GN50.45.G8T76 2013
 599.909495—dc23
2013026491
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ISSN 1877-6272
ISBN 978-90-04-25766-5 (hardback)
ISBN 978-90-04-25767-2 (e-book)
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In memory of Georgia Kretsi (1972–2009)

CONTENTS
Preface and Acknowledgements  ................................................................ xi
A Note on Greek References and Transliteration  ................................. xiii
Abbreviations  ................................................................................................... xv
Introduction: Framing the Research: A Medical Discipline
with Holistic Claims  .................................................................................. 1
SECTION I
ON THE EMERGENCE OF MODERN ANTHROPOLOGy IN GREECE
1. Tracing the Intellectual and Epistemic Sources of Greek
Anthropology .............................................................................................. 25
1.1 The Dispute over Evolutionism and the Alliance of the
Natural Sciences and Medicine  ................................................. 26
1.2 Medical Geography Αs an Epistemic Source of Greek
Anthropology  ................................................................................... 31
2. The Emergence of Anthropological Institutions and
Professional Scholarship  ......................................................................... 41
2.1 The Adventurous Establishment of the University Chair
for Physical Anthropology  ........................................................... 44
2.2 The Chair-Holder in the Light of His Own Life Narrative  47
Conclusion to Section I  ................................................................................. 51
SECTION II
CONCEPTS OF ANTHROPOLOGy, INSTITUTIONAL TRAJECTORIES
AND SCIENTIFIC CAPITAL
Introduction to Section II: Paths for Passing from the Word
to Discourse  ................................................................................................ 55
3. Anthropology at the Museum  ............................................................... 57
3.1 The Museum Αs a Vehicle for the Mutual Advancement
of National and Professional Aims  ........................................... 57
viii contents
3.2 The Anthropological Museum Αs National Heterotopia  ... 62
3.3 Beyond National Limits: A Public Site to Represent
Universal Human Culture  ........................................................... 66
3.4 Authorization over Ethnology and a Colonial Dream for
Athens  ................................................................................................ 70
4. Anthropology at the University Chair  ................................................ 79
4.1 The Agenda: Teaching Anthropology in the Broad
Sense  .................................................................................................. 79
4.2 The Implementation: Teaching the Restricted Scope of
Physical Anthropology .................................................................. 83
5. The Greek Anthropological Society  .................................................... 89
5.1 Contours of a Trajectory: Promising Outset, Inglorious
End ...................................................................................................... 89
5.2 The Internal Debates of the Greek Anthropological
Society  ............................................................................................... 96
5.3 Quantification of Humans: Criminals, Sound Children
and Intelligence Tests  ................................................................... 99
5.4 Physical Anomaly and Heredity Αs Nexus to
Anthropological Discourse  .......................................................... 106
5.5 Anthropology Αs Fetish, Professional Conformity and
Opposition  ........................................................................................ 110
5.6 Embracing Social Anthropology in the Face of a Noble
Anthropologist: Prince Peter  ...................................................... 115
6. A ‘Disinterested Science’ in Wartime  ................................................. 121
6.1 The Neutrality of Science and the War Narrative ................ 121
6.2 The Need for Rehabilitation and Ex Post Facto
Patriotism  ......................................................................................... 128
6.3 Civil War: Victims, Patriots and Badly Educated Peoples  .. 131
Excursus: Anthropological Conceptions and University Capital  ..... 139
SECTION III
CONCEPTS OF THE GREEK FIlI:
COMMUNALITy IN RACIAL AND EUGENIC TERMS
Introduction to Section III: Terminological Metamorphoses of
Fili—Diverse Concepts of Communality  ............................................ 145
contents ix
7. Race and Greek Ancestry  ....................................................................... 147
7.1 From Religious Universalism to Hellenism: A Bridge to
Pass from Empire to Nation State  ............................................ 149
7.2 The Arrival of Race via the National Vehicle  ........................ 159
7.3 Dilemmas of Racial Purity: From Assimilatory Hellenism
to Racial Hybridization  ................................................................ 162
7.4 To Cope with the Ottoman Legacy in the Shadow of the
Nordic Racial Myth  ........................................................................ 171
7.5 Back to Racial Purity via Mixophobia: In Light of
National Socialism  ......................................................................... 177
7.6 Perceptions of Racial Theories: Absorbed, Absent and
Phantom Minorities  ...................................................................... 189
7.7 Aris Poulianos on the Racial Origins of the Greeks  ............ 196
8. The Eugenic Concept of Fili  .................................................................. 203
8.1 Eugenic Representations of Hellenic Antiquity: A Matter
of European Self-Consciousness  ................................................ 205
8.2 The Social Question and Overpopulation: Eugenics for
Governing Social Stratification  .................................................. 207
8.3 Social Disease, the Promiscuity of the Poor and
Eugenically Coloured Hygiene  ................................................... 223
8.4 Scholars on Eugenic Politics, Sterilization and Prenatal
Health Examinations  .................................................................... 233
8.5 Eugenic Birth Control by State Institutions ........................... 239
8.6 Greek Racial Hygienists and the Transient Appearance
of Stavros Zurukzoglu  ................................................................... 246
8.7 Beyond and against Eugenics: Still a Subjective Decision  258
8.8 Under the Banner of Reformist Eugenics: The Greek
Society of Eugenics  ........................................................................ 263
8.8.1 Post-War Eugenics in Public Debates: Old
Issues—New Controversies  ........................................... 267
8.8.2 Professional Networking and Political
Opportunity: A Biographical Note on Nikolaos
Louros  ................................................................................... 274
Excursus: Fili, Bio-Power and Authoritative Biologism  ....................... 279
9. Concluding Reflections: The Hidden Legacy of Racial
Nationalism  ................................................................................................. 287