The discovery and explanation of differences among organisms is a major concern for evolutionary and systematic biologists. In physical anthropology, the discrimination of taxa and the qualitative and quantitative description of ontogenetic or evolutionary change require, of course, the analysis of morphological features. Since the 1960s, a remarkable amount of fossil material was excavated, so...

By the mid-twentieth century, taxonomy had, like many things Victorian, become unfashionable. When Washburn (1951: 298) argued for a ‘new physical anthropology’, he described the discipline’s dominant approach of that period as ‘static, with emphasis on classification based on types’, though he did qualify that characterisation as ‘oversimplified’. The change he wanted to encourage was one of e...

The year 2000 marks the onset of the 21st century. In this transitional year, prominent physical anthropologists will provide brief reflections on our discipline, including what attracted them to it, and their views on the directions our discipline may pursue as we enter, in January 2001, the third millennium.

Gabriel W. Lasker died on August 27, 2002 from complications of kidney disease. He was 90 years old. Lasker was one of the leading figures in anthropology after World War II. He helped create the population approach in biological anthropology, which rejected concepts of fixed racial typology in favor of variation and plasticity in adaptation. He developed the methodology of using family surname...

Lithuanian physical anthropology developed quite changably, having its ups and dawns, connected with the history of the country: wars, the periods of occupation and independence. The history of Lithuanian anthropology can be divided into following periods: initial (the 1st half of the 19th c.), until independence of Republic of Lithuania (the 2nd half of the 19th c. and the beginning of the 20t...

W. Montague Cobb became the first African American to receive a doctorate in physical anthropology in the United States (1932). He was also among the first U.S. physical anthropologists to demonstrate a commitment to biocultural integration and racial equality in his research. Nonetheless, very few European American physical anthropologists responded to or utilized Cobb’s work. This continued a...