Blood and Homeland: Eugenics and Racial Nationalism in Central and Southeast Europe, 1900-1940

Anthropological Discourse and Eugenics in Interwar Greece

Anthropological Discourse and Eugenics in Interwar Greece Sevasti Trubeta During the 1920s, the decade in which anthropology was developed and institutionalized in Greece, the discipline was—as was the case in the rest of Europe—inextricably linked with politics. Moreover, anthropology was connected to the eugenic movement, as well as to population and racial studies. From its inception, Greek anthropology reflected both national ideas and those notions common in the rest of Europe, particularly in France and Germany, which had a significant impact on the evolution of anthropology in Greece.1 This chapter will analyze and discuss the context in which anthropology and eugenics emerged and developed in interwar Greece, in addition to considering the most important events in the establishment of anthropology as a discipline, its institutionalization, and its leading proponents. The Greek Anthropological Association (Ελληνικη ′ Ανθρωπολογικη ′ Εταιρει ′α), and its contribution to the dissemination of anthropological discourse, will be the central focus of this chapter. This association was a unique institution in which science and politics intermingled, and within which concepts of the nation were discussed in relation to physical anthropology and race. Moreover, close attention will be devoted to those members of the Greek Anthropological Association who participated in debates on eugenics. In Greek, “phili” (φυλη ′), which is usually translated as “race,” represents the merger of racial and national ideas. As a term, “phili” was associated with the concept of the nation, but it also had naturalistic, biological, and racial connotations.2 In the interwar period, the racial implications of “phili” were stressed. On the one hand, this reflected the intellectual trends relating to race prevalent in Europe at the time; however, on the other hand it resulted from attempts to refute theories about Greek racial inferiority and racial impurity. In this sense, anthropology was used to assert the link between modern Greeks and their supposed Hellenic ancestors. The Emergence of Greek Anthropology Typical of the emergence of physical anthropology elsewhere in Europe, the interplay of archaeology and medicine proved of primary importance for the development of anthropology in Greece. In short, physicians institutionalized the discipline. However, archaeologists may be considered as scientific precursors to anthropologists because they provided the foundation for anthropological research. The interplay between archaeology and medicine is clearly reflected in the activities of individuals who played a central role in the establishment of anthropology as a scientific discipline in Greece, such as Clon Stephanos (1834–1915) and his successor, Ioannis Koumaris (1879–1970).3 After studying medicine in Athens, Stephanos completed his education in Paris with the study La Grèce au Point de Vue Naturel, Ethnologique , Anthropologique, Démographique et Médical (Greece from a Natural, Ethnological, Anthropological, Demographic, and Medical Point of View).4 For the rest of his life Stephanos devoted himself to anthropological and archaeological investigations, including directing excavations and collecting skeletal remains from various sites in Greece. In 1886, he established a Museum of Anthropology at the University of Athens, which he directed until his death in 1915. In the same year, a chair in anthropology was created in the faculty of medicine at the University of Athens in Stephanos’s honour, and in recognition of his commitment to scientific research. Stephanos died, however, before he was able to take up the chair. Ioannis Koumaris was promoted to a professorship in his place, although he did not occupy the chair “for political reasons,” as he noted in his autobiography.5 Ten years later, in 1925, another independent chair of physical anthropology was established at the University of Athens. Koumaris studied medicine, anatomy and surgery in Athens; later he continued his medical education in Berlin (1906–1908) and Paris (1908). He gradually became familiar with physical anthropology, prehistoric anthropology and ethnology in Paris, Brussels, Vienna, Munich, Berlin and Rome.6 The work of Clon Stephanos had provided the rudiments necessary for establishing and institutionalizing physical anthropology in Greece, while Ioannis Koumaris shaped its development well into the 1970s. Indeed, Koumaris held many positions: he was director of the Museum of Anthropology (1915–1950); he held the first Chair of Physical Anthropology at the University of Athens 124 “Blood and Homeland” (1925–1949); and he was co-founder and director (1922–1928) of the journal Ιατρικη ′ (Medicine), the publication of the Association of Medical Scientists (Ιατρικη ′ Εταιρει ′α). One of his most important achievements was the founding of the Greek Anthropological Association in 1924, of which he became life president. Koumaris aimed to model Greek anthropology on...