Editing Craniometry (section)

== The cephalic index ==
{{main|Cephalic index}}
Swedish professor of anatomy [[Anders Retzius]] (1796–1860) first used the [[cephalic index]] in [[biological anthropology|physical anthropology]] to classify ancient human remains found in Europe. He classified brains into three main categories, "dolichocephalic" (from the [[Ancient Greek]] ''kephalê'', head, and ''dolikhos'', long and thin), "brachycephalic" (short and broad) and "mesocephalic" (intermediate length and width).

A similar classification was the [[Cephalic index#Vertical cephalic index|vertical cephalic index]], the categories of which were "chamaecranic" (low-skulled), "orthocranic", (medium high-skulled), and "hypsicranic" (high-skulled).

These terms were then used by [[Georges Vacher de Lapouge]] (1854–1936), one of the controversial founders of theories in this area and a theoretician of [[eugenics]], who in ''L'Aryen et son rôle social'' (1899 – "The [[Aryan]] and his social role") divided [[Human|humanity]] into various, hierarchized, different "races", spanning from the "Aryan white race, dolichocephalic", to the "brachycephalic" "mediocre and inert" race, best represented by the population of "France, Spain, Italy, all of Asia, and most of the Slavic countries".<ref>{{cite book |last=Hecht |first=Jennifer Michael |author-link= |date=2003 |title=The end of the soul: scientific modernity, atheism, and anthropology in France |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zGvSgUUPrW8C |location=New York|publisher=Columbia University Press |page=171 |isbn=978-0231128469}}</ref>

Between these, Vacher de Lapouge identified the "''[[Nordic theory|Homo europaeus]]''" (Teutonic, Protestant, etc.), the "''[[Homo alpinus]]''" ([[Auvergne (province)|Auvergnat]], [[Turkish people|Turkish]], etc.), and finally the "''[[Homo mediterraneus]]''" ([[Naples|Napolitano]], [[Andalusia|Andalus]], etc.). "''Homo africanus''" (Congo, Florida) was even excluded from the discussion. Vacher de Lapouge became one of the leading inspirations of [[Nazi]] [[antisemitism]] and [[Nazi policies|Nazi ideology]].<ref>See [[Pierre-André Taguieff]], ''La couleur et le sang – Doctrines racistes à la française'' ("Colour and Blood – doctrines ''à la française''"), Paris, [[Mille et une nuits]], 2002, 203 pages, and ''La Force du préjugé – Essai sur le racisme et ses doubles'', Tel [[Gallimard]], La Découverte, 1987, 644 pages</ref> His classification was mirrored in [[William Z. Ripley]] in ''[[The Races of Europe (Ripley)|The Races of Europe]]'' (1899).