Physical anthropology and Human Evolution in Denmark and other Scandinavian Countries

In Scandinavia the development of physical anthropology and studies on human evolution seem to fall into several stages: I: A speculative, religious and philosophical stage, lasting until the 18th century. II: A stage in which classifications in Natural History are predominant, lasting from the middle of the 18th century until the 1830’s. III: An archaeological/craniological stage with an emphasis on «racial origin», lasting until late in the 19th century. This stage developed into viz. the osteological (VI) and the following (IV): IV: Evolutionary/«social Darwinian» thoughts transformed into eugenics by the 1930’s, when on the one hand it progressed into extreme racism and on the other developed into: V: Human genetics and genetic counselling based on the study of hereditary diseases. Parallel to stage IV, the osteological studies developed further into: VI: Traditional physical anthropology including descriptive palaeopathology. A branch of osteology developed into archaeozoological studies on Man’s environment. VII: The recent interdisciplinary and analytical studies of human biology of ancient populations.