ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the research activity of the liberal philosopher Giandomenico Romagnosi (1761–1835) and his pupil, the democratic intellectual Carlo Cattaneo (1801–1869). It examines, in particular, their critique of Romantic mythopoeses that conflated linguistic and biological descent to produce ‘pure’ national lineages. In their writings, the natural history of man and physical anthropology were employed to counter the myth of purely autochthonous ethnogenetic and civilizational processes. Conversely, both Romagnosi and Cattaneo considered the origins of populations and civilizations an inherently cosmopolitan process, and resolved to ‘safeguard’ anthropology and linguistics from the encroachments of nationalism and prejudice. For these reasons also, Cattaneo, though an outspoken polygenist, condemned racism and the idea of biologically ‘superior’ races.
