Giuseppè Sergi (1841, Messina – 1936, Rome) was an influential Italian anthropologist of the early twentieth century, notable for his opposition to Nordicism in his books on the racial identity of ancient Mediterranean peoples. According to Sergi, the Mediterranean race arose from primal populations in North Africa, and was related to Hamitic peoples. Madison Grants map, from 1916, charting the distribution of the European races, with Nordic genetic influence shown in bright red. ... The Mediterranrean race was one of the three sub-categories into which the Caucasian race was divided by anthropologists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. ... The term Hamitic refers to peoples traditionally believed to have been descended from Ham, one of Noahs sons. ...

When Sergi became university professor in 1880, the discipline of anthropology was still associated with the Literature Faculty. In the following years, thanks to the activity of his Laboratory of anthropology and psychology, he helped establish the discipline on a more scientific basis. He developed a program of research into both psychology and the anthropology. In 1893 he founded the Roman Society of Anthropology. Internationally renowned for his contributions to anthropology, he succeeded in establishing the International Conference of Psychology in Rome, 1905, under his presidency.