The Brain Collections of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, University of Turin: Re-Evaluation and Scientific Investigation

Abstract

The study of brain collections has played an important role in research on the Natural History of Man. Current knowledge on cerebral morphological evolution and development of the psyche, from non-human primates to Man, is the result of analyses of endocranial casts and brains collected in the nineteenth century from the various primate species dissected. This paper presents the brain collections of non-human and human primates housed in the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the University of Turin put together in the early 1900s by A. Marro, father of Prof. Giovanni Marro, the founder of the Museum. These collections, which have required constant interventions aimed at their preservation and scientific re-evaluation, have undoubted historical interest and are essential to define Man, both biologically and culturally.