Malta in the ethnological complex of Europe

Abstract

A Public Lecture given under the auspices of the Royal University of Malta Anatomical Society in May 1971. Ethnology has always recognised that the major races and stocks were, in a sense, geographical. The prehistoric and historical evolution of the Maltese is discussed with particular reference to Tarxien Cemetery Period, The Borg in-Nadur and Bahrija periods, Phoenician Periods, The Arab invasion, The Norman Conquest and the Angevin and Aragonese successions and The Order of St. John. The author maintains that if we try to analyse what all the elements have brought to the Maltese population, we realise that, while, in Malta, may well be found genes of all the major races of the Caucasoid stocks of Europe, nevertheless, the basic matrix is Mediterranean. He further points out that there is one feature of Maltese ethnology which cannot be too strongly stressed; he highlights the fact that the Maltese are one of the most intensely inbred populations.