Can artificially deforming skulls cause “defects of intelligence”? The observations of a positivist anthropologist on an artificially deformed skull discovered in Naples

Abstract

We discuss a particular case of an artificially deformed skull discovered in Naples in 1892 and published in the Italian Journal of Natural Sciences by the anthropologist Abele De Blasio. To comprehend the observations of the researcher about the "defects of intelligence" caused by the artificial deformation of the skull, we will also analyze other articles in which De Blasio presented the deformed skulls of ancient Peruvian mummies.