Paul Broca's search for Basque skulls: The full story

Paul Broca surmised that the short and broad-brachycephalic-skulls of the earliest European settlers had become longer and narrower-dolichocephalic-in modern populations due to the blending of different races. Swedish anatomist Anders Retzius had two brachycephalic skulls said to be from contemporar...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the history of the neurosciences 2016-10, Vol.25 (4), p.371-385
Main Author: Giménez-Roldán, Santiago
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Anthropology - history
Basque Country
Biological Evolution
Broca
craniology
Craniosynostoses - history
France
History of medicine and histology
History, 19th Century
History, 20th Century
Humans
Hybridization, Genetic
Neuroanatomy - history
Paul Broca
Pedro González Velasco
skull
Skull - anatomy & histology
Spain
Velasco
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Summary:Paul Broca surmised that the short and broad-brachycephalic-skulls of the earliest European settlers had become longer and narrower-dolichocephalic-in modern populations due to the blending of different races. Swedish anatomist Anders Retzius had two brachycephalic skulls said to be from contemporary Basque individuals, a claim suited to test Broca's hypothesis. Broca worked with fellow anatomist and surgeon Pedro González Velasco, the founding father of Spanish anthropology, to gather a large number of Basque skulls. In its time, this was the most fascinating collection owned by the Anthropological Society of Paris. This article explains how Broca and Velasco were able to gather such a sizeable array of specimens, which they had collected at a location known at first by the code name of "Z." Although Broca finally concluded that the origin of the Retzius skulls could not be determined, his research was to spark anthropologists' interest in the language and origins of the Basque people.
ISSN:0964-704X
1744-5213
DOI:10.1080/0964704X.2014.886811