Editing Jan Czekanowski

{{Short description|Polish polymath}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Jan Czekanowski
| image             = Jan Czekanowski.jpg
| image_size        = 
| caption           = Jan Czekanowski
| birth_date        = {{birth date|1882|10|6}}
| birth_place       = [[Głuchów, Grójec County|Głuchów]], [[Poland]]
| death_date        = {{death date and age|1965|7|20|1882|10|6}}
| death_place       = [[Szczecin]], [[Poland]]
| nationality       = Polish
| fields            = [[anthropology|anthropologist]], [[statistics|statistician]], [[ethnography|ethnographer]], [[linguistics|linguist]], [[travel]]ler, [[phrenology]]
| known_for         = [[computational linguistics]]<br />[[Sørensen–Dice coefficient|Czekanowski binary index]]
| workplaces        = [[University of Lviv]]<br />[[Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań|University of Poznań]]
| alma_mater        = [[University of Zurich]]
| doctoral_advisor  = 
| doctoral_students = 
}}
'''Jan Czekanowski''' (October 8, 1882, [[Głuchów, Grójec County|Głuchów]] – July 20, 1965, [[Szczecin]]) was a Polish [[anthropologist]], [[statistician]], [[ethnographer]], [[travel]]ler, and [[linguistics|linguist]]. He was one of the first persons to use quantitative methods in linguistics.<ref>{{Cite book |chapter-url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/indoeuropean-language-family/computational-approaches-to-linguistic-chronology-and-subgrouping/4A7B80EB7C1ADDA08CB4421A01FDF0D7 |chapter=Computational Approaches to Linguistic Chronology and Subgrouping |website=cambridge.org |author=Dariusz Piwowarczyk |title=The Indo-European Language Family |date=15 September 2022 |pages=33–51 |doi=10.1017/9781108758666.003 |isbn=978-1-108-75866-6 |access-date=4 May 2023}}</ref>

Czekanowski played an important role in saving the [[Poland|Polish]]-[[Lithuania]]n branch of the [[Crimean Karaites|Karaite]] people from [[Holocaust]] extermination. In 1942, he managed to convince [[Germany|German]] "[[Scientific racism|race scientists]]" that the Karaites were of [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] origin although professing [[Judaism]] and using [[Hebrew]] as a liturgical language. This helped the Karaites escape the tragic destiny of other European [[Jew]]s and the [[Romani people|Romas]].

==Life==
Czekanowski attended school in Warsaw but was transferred to Latvia, where he finished his education in 1901. He then entered a university in Zurich in 1902; there, he studied anthropology, mathematics, anatomy, and ethnography as a pupil of Swiss anthropologist [[Rudolf Martin (anthropologist)|Rudolf Martin]], author of the popular anthropology textbook ''Lehrbuch der Anthropologie''. In 1907 Czekanowski defended his doctoral dissertation. For his dissertation research he traveled to the Royal Museum in Berlin and to Middle Africa from 1906 to 1907. While in Africa, he led a team into the Congo to collect ethnographic materials. While working on studying the societies of [[Africa]], he developed various statistical methods and contributed to the field of [[Taxonomy (biology)|taxonomy]].

The research he made in Africa has since been published in five volumes and sent in 1910, to Saint Petersburg ethnography. This colonial research was the milestone of [[phrenology]] and [[eugenics]]. He stole 800 skulls from [[Rwanda]] and took them to Europe for examination and classification.<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9DOER8JmSc&list=PLnew5rcdgtzKuRDbunOZAW90W6bTskXQA&index=19 |title=Colonial roots of the genocide in Rwanda {{!}} DW Documentary |date=2024-04-05 |last=DW Documentary |access-date=2024-11-05 |via=YouTube}}</ref> This research led to artificial racial division of Rwanda people into [[Tutsi]], [[Hutu]] and [[Twa]]. This division was later used by the [[Belgian colonial empire|belgian colonial]] rule to divide people into ruling class and working class. This colonially constructed order and growing tension was the reason for the [[Rwandan genocide]] in 1994.

He then became a professor at the [[University of Lviv]] and [[Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań|University of Poznań]]. While working he introduced an innovative approach to mathematical statistics. He worked in these universities from 1913 to 1945 and in the period 1923-1924 he was a president of [[Polish Copernicus Society of Naturalists]]. In addition, he worked at the University of Poznań from 1937-1946, where he researched the dynamics of evolution in human populations. He played numerous scientific roles at the University of Poznań, including vice-chairman of the Polish Social Statistic Company.

==Racial classification==
In the context of the [[Historical race concepts|racial theories]] of his time which have since been disproved by modern genetics,<ref name="Templeton2016">Templeton, A. (2016). Evolution and Notions of Human Race. In Losos J. & Lenski R. (Eds.), ''How Evolution Shapes Our Lives: Essays on Biology and Society'' (pp. 346–361). Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University Press. p. 360 {{doi|10.2307/j.ctv7h0s6j.26}}. See also: {{cite web|author=American Association of Physical Anthropologists|author-link=American Association of Physical Anthropologists|title=AAPA Statement on Race and Racism |website=American Association of Physical Anthropologists|access-date=19 June 2020 |date=27 March 2019 |url=https://physanth.org/about/position-statements/aapa-statement-race-and-racism-2019/}}</ref> Czekanowski classified Europeans into four pure races. The four pure races were the Nordic, Mediterranean (Ibero-Insular), Lapponoid and Armenoid. The Lapponoid included the central and eastern Europeans along Europe longitudely as well as the [[Sami people]] of Northern Europe.

Czekanowski classified six subraces in Europe which were mixed types of the pure races. The six mixed racial subraces were: the Northwestern (Nordic and Mediterranean), the Subnordic (Nordic and Lapponoid), Alpine (Nordic and Armenoid), the Littoral (Mediterranean and Armenoid), Sublapponoid (Mediterranean and Lapponoid) and the Dinaric (Lapponoid and Armenoid). The Sublapponoid subrace (also called Pile Dwelling race) lived around the Swiss lakes.<ref>Coon, Carleton S. The Races of Europe. Racial Classification within the White Family.  August 11, 2006.  <{{cite web |url=http://www.snpa.nordish.net/chapter-VIII6.htm |title=Racial Classification within the White Family |accessdate=2006-08-24 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20050522181536/http://www.snpa.nordish.net/chapter-VIII6.htm |archivedate=2005-05-22 }}.></ref>
The Greek letters which symbolise races and types could be capital or lower case.
{{col-float-begin|style=width:20em}}
[[Image:Czekanowski.jpg|thumb|none|Racial classification scheme from Czekanowski's book ''Człowiek w czasie i przestrzeni'' (1934)]]
{{col-float-break|style=width:16em}}
;Pure Races
: α =Nordic race
: ε =Ibero-Insular race
: λ =Lapponoid race
: χ =Armenoid race
{{col-float-break|style=width:18em}}
;Mixed Types
: ι =Northwestern mixed type
: γ =Subnordic mixed type
: ω =Alpine mixed type
: ρ or ρ =Littoral mixed type
: β =Pile Dwelling mixed type
: δ =Dinaric mixed type
{{col-float-end}}

==Linguistics==
Czekanowski introduced [[numerical taxonomy]] into [[comparative linguistics]], thus founding the discipline of [[computational linguistics]].{{citation needed|date=April 2016}} He developed (1913) a still much-used [[Sørensen similarity index|index of similarity]] between two samples. He applied it to [[phonemes]] and [[words]] in text [[text corpus|corpora]] of different languages. It was later introduced in analysis of [[ecology|ecological]] [[Community (ecology)|communities]].

==Books==
* ''Forschungen im Nil-Kongo. Zwischengebiet'' (1911–17)
* ''Zarys metod statystycznych w zastosowaniu do antropologii'' [An outline of statistical methods applied in anthropology]. Warszawa: Towarzystwo Naukowe Warszawskie (1913)
* ''Zarys antropologii Polski'' (1930)
* ''Człowiek w czasie i przestrzeni'' (1934)
* ''Polska - Słowiańszczyzna. Perspektywy antropologiczne'' (1948)
* ''Wstęp do historii Słowian, Poznań 1957''
* ''Człowiek w czasie i przestrzeni (third edition)'' (1967)

==See also==
*[[List of Poles#Linguistics|List of Poles]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Jan Czekanowski}}
* [http://www.antropologia.uw.edu.pl/AS/as-023.pdf Czekanowski's Diagram: a Method of Multidimensional Clustering]

{{Historical definitions of race}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Czekanowski, Jan}}
[[Category:1882 births]]
[[Category:1965 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Grójec]]
[[Category:People from Warsaw Governorate]]
[[Category:Polish anthropologists]]
[[Category:Polish statisticians]]
[[Category:20th-century anthropologists]]
[[Category:20th-century Polish linguists]]
[[Category:Members of the Polish Ethnological Society]]
[[Category:Members of the Lwów Scientific Society]]
[[Category:Burials at Powązki Cemetery]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Medal of the 10th Anniversary of the People's Republic of Poland]]