Charles Gabriel Seligman FRS[1] FRAI (né Seligmann; 24 December 1873 – 19 September 1940) was a British physician and ethnologist.
He was a professor at London School of Economics and was influential to prominent anthropologists, such as Bronisław Malinowski, E. E. Evans-Pritchard, and Meyer Fortes.
[3] Seligman was born into a middle-class Jewish family in London, the son of wine merchant Hermann Seligmann and his wife.
The latter branch includes the Berbers and the "Taureg and Tibu of the Sahara, the Fulbe of Western Sudan and the extinct Guanche of the Canary Islands".
[17] Drawing from Coon, Seligman also discusses fairer features observed among a minority of Berbers or Northern Hamites, such as lighter skin, golden beards and blue eyes.
Races of Africa, however, notably questions the belief held by some anthropologists in the early 20th century that these fairer traits, such as blondism, were introduced by a Nordic variety.
[18] In addition, Seligman laid stress on the common descent of Hamites with Semites, writing that "there is no doubt that the Hamites and Semites must be regarded as modifications of an original stock, and that their differentiation did not take place so very long ago, evidence for this statement being furnished by the persistence of common cultural traits and linguistic affinities.
[22] Races of Africa was revised four times; Seligman published a second revised edition in 1939, a year before his death: "Additions to the original edition published nine years ago include a note on the importance of the Boskop skull…an account of the Pygmies as described by Paul Schebesta and a slight alteration in the classification of the linguistic stocks of the Guinea Coast".