Recent Physical Anthropology

• Published date: 01 May 1970
• DOI: 10.1177/000271627038900114
• Author: W.W. Howells
• Date: 01 May 1970
• Subject Matter: Articles

116

SUPPLEMENT

Recent

Physical

Anthropology

By

W.

W.

HOWELLS

W.

W.

Howells,

Ph.D.,

Cambridge,

Massachusetts,

Professor

of

Anthropology

and

Curator

of

Somatology,

Peabody

Museum,

Harvard

University.

He

was

formerly

Professor

of

Anthropology

and

of

Integrated

Liberal

Studies,

University

of

Wisconsin.

In

1951,

he

was

president

of

the

American

Anthropological

Association,

and

from

1949

to

1954,

he

was

editor

of

the

American

Journal

of

Physical

Anthropology.

In

1955,

he

received

the

Viking

Fund

Medal

for

Physical

Anthropology,

and

in

1967,

he

was

elected

to

the

National

Academy

of

Sciences.

He

is

the

author

of

Mankind

So

Far

(1944),

The

Heathens

(1948),

Back

of

History

(1954),

and

Mankind

in

the

Making

(rev.

ed.,

1967),

and

the

editor

of

Ideas

on

Human

Evolution,

1949-1961

(1962).

Pro-

fessor

Howells

has

made

three

trips

to

the

Pacific

in

the

past

ten

years—the

latest

of

which

was

a

Harvard

expedition

to

the

Solomon

Islands

in

1968—and

is

currently

preparing

a

book

on

the

peoples

and

peopling

of

the

Pacific.

THE

work

of

men

who

call

them-

selves

physical

anthropologists

goes

on

being

diverse

in

nature.

In

supple-

menting

my

earlier

review

of

the

sub-

ject,l

I

shall

not

attempt

to

catalogue,

but

will

deal

only

with

certain

recent

emphases

which

seem

important

to

met.2

2

Some

fields

will

be

ignored,

with

no

im-

plication

that

they

are

not

the

subject

of

significant

work.

HOMINID

EVOLUTION

The

direct

fossil

evidence

has

been

expanding,

as

usual,

largely

in

chance

directions.

In

the

previous

survey,

I

suggested

a

general

framework:

(1)

emergence

of

a

hominid

line,

in

IZama-

pithecus,

in

the

later

Tertiary,

discerned

1

W. W.

Howells,

"Some

Present

Aspects

of

Physical

Anthropology,"

THE

ANNALS

of

the

American

Academy

of

Political

and

Social

Science,

vol.

357

(January

1965),

pp.

127-133.

2

A

significant

weight

of

recent

publication

falls

in

the

two

areas

covered

herein.

For

primates

and

primate

evolution,

developments

are:

1st

Congress

of

the

International

Pri-

matological

Society

(at

Frankfurt),

in

1966;

founding

(by

A.

H.

Schultz)

of

Bibliotheca

Primatologia,

a

set

of

occasional

papers,

in

1962,

and

of

Folia

Primatologia,

a

regular

journal,

in

1963;

production

since

1953

of

encyclopedic

volumes

on

anatomy,

physiology,

and

taxonomy

of

the

whole

primate

order

by

W.

C.

Osman

Hill

(six

volumes

in

systematic

arrangement

to

date) ;

an

International

Con-

gress

on

the

Baboon

as

an

Experimental

Ani-

mal,

with

proceedings

of

the

meetings

pub-

lished

as

The

Baboon

in

Medical

Research;

and

a

systematic

series

on

the

chimpanzee

published

by

Karger

(Basel).

In

the

general

field

of

human

biology:

founding

of

the

Soci-

ety

for

the

Study

of

Human

Biology

in

1958,

adopting

Human

Biology

as

its

official

organ

and

publishing

a

series

of

special

symposia

in

book

form;

organization

in

1964

of

the

Inter-

national

Biological

Program,

with

a

section

on

Human

Adaptability;

founding

of

the

journal

Archaeology

and

Physical

Anthropology

of

Oceania

at

the

University

of

Sydney;

change

by

the

American

Eugenics

Society

of

its

jour-

nal

name

from

"Eugenics

Quarterly"

to

"Social

Biology,"

as

more

accurately

reflecting

con-

tent ;

in

the

process

of

being

organized,

the

International

Association

of

Human

Biologists,

with

present

headquarters

in

Brussels.