Eva era nera. La scoperta di ‘Eva mitocondriale’ nelle pratiche visuali dei rotocalchi italiani

This article examines the iconographies that shaped Italian public debate following the introduction, in 1987 at the University of California, Berkeley (by Rebecca Cann, Mark Stoneking, and Allan C.Wilson), of a new female figure in studies on human origins and population diversity – later known as ‘Mitochondrial Eve’ (also referred to as ‘African Eve’ and ‘Black Eve’). Through an analysis of the major illustrated magazines then in circulation, the study explores both the national and international trajectories and the visual reception of this ‘scientific earthquake’, which contributed to challenging the multiregional model of human origins. On the one hand, it was portrayed as a profound upheaval of the evolutionary order; on the other, as the notion of a common ancestor (a lucky mother) of all contemporary human populations. In particular, the article investigates the most widespread visual practices – devoting special attention to the presence or absence of photographic representations, which had long served as a key tool in depicting diverse human groups over the course of racist thinking – to discern whether and how, by the late 1980s, the iconographies of progress and human difference underwent significant changes in light of the interplay between science, racial discourse, and public debate. Ultimately, the goal is to contribute to the historicization of antiracist sensibilities in Italy, marked by a persistent appeal to scientific authority as a source of legitimacy at a pivotal moment characterized by the coexistence of Afrophobia and Afromania. Key words: Mitochondrial Eve; visual culture; illustrated press; antiracism; Genetics