Physical Anthropology

Book reviewed in this article:
The Roots of Prejudice. Arnold Rose.
Racial Myths. Juan Comas.
Race and Psychology. Otto Klineberg.
Race and Culture. Michel Leiris.
Race and Biology. L. C. Dunn.
The Significance of Racial Differences. G. M. Morant.
Race and History. Claude Lévi-Strauss.     

From Types to Populations: A Century of Race, Physical Anthropology, and the American Anthropological Association

In the 1960s, U.S. physical anthropology underwent a period of introspection that marked a change from the old physical anthropology that was largely race based to the new physical anthropology, espoused by Washburn and others for over a decade, which incorporated the evolutionary biology of the modern synthesis. What actually changed? What elements of the race concept have been rejected, and what elements have persisted, influencing physical anthropology today? In this article, I examine both the scientific and social influences on physical anthropology that caused changes in the race concept, in particular the influence of the American Anthropological Association. The race concept is complicated but entails three attributes: essentialism, cladistic thinking, and biological determinism. These attributes have not all been discarded; while biological determinism and its social implications have been questioned since the inception of the field, essentialism and the concomitant rendering of populations as clades persists as a legacy of the race concept. [Keywords: race, essentialism, physical anthropology]     

Physical Anthropology and the dental and medical specialties

The rise of two sub-specialties in Physical Anthropology traces back to the Anatomy Departments of Schools of Medicine in Germany and France during the nineteenth century. The study of human diversity in bones and bodies was largely by medically-trained anatomists. There developed Medical Anthropology and Dental Anthropology, employing osteometry and craniometry on the skeleton, somatometry and cephalometry on the living body. As a result cross-sectional studies gave way to longitudinal studies and X-ray techniques were added to purely mensurational procedures. In Medical Anthropology the specialties most directly concerned are pediatrics, plastic surgery, endocrinology, and orthopaedics. In Dental Anthropology the specialties most directly concerned are pedodontics, orthodontics, oral surgery, and prosthodontics. The contributions of Physical Anthropology to each is discussed.     

History of Physical Anthropology: An Encyclopedia

History of Physical Anthropology: An Encyclopedia, vols. & 2. Frank Spencer. ed. New York: Garland Publishing, 1997. 1,195 pp.