William W. Howells
| William W. Howells | |
|---|---|
| Born |
William White Howells November 27, 1908 New York City |
| Died |
December 20, 2005 (aged 97) Kittery Point, Maine |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Anthropology |
| Institutions | Harvard University |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Doctoral advisor | Earnest A. Hooton |
| Doctoral students |
Paul T. Baker C. Loring Brace Henry Harpending Robert Jurmain Henry McHenry and others[1] |
William White Howells (November 27, 1908 – December 20, 2005) was a professor of anthropology at Harvard University. His most notable research concluded that modern humans are of one species.
Howells, grandson of the novelist William Dean Howells, was born in New York City, the son of John Mead Howells, the architect of the Chicago Tribune Tower, and Abby MacDougall White.[2] He graduated with an S.B. in 1930 and obtained a doctorate from Harvard in 1934 and worked for the American Museum of Natural History.[3] He lectured at the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 1937 to 1954, serving as a lieutenant in the Office of Naval Intelligence during World War II.[4] He taught at Harvard from 1954 until his retirement in 1974.
He was president of the American Anthropological Association in 1951.[5] In 1998, with his wife Muriel Seabury, Howells endowed the directorship of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard.[6] "Professor Howells had a moderating effect" over the origins of modern humans as he "tended toward the Noah's Ark theory."[7]
Honors
Howells was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and won many notable awards. He received the Viking Fund Medal in 1954; the Distinguished Service Award of the American Anthropological Association in 1978 and was honored by that Association again in 1993 with the establishment of the William W. Howells Book Prize. In 1992 he won the Charles Darwin Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Physical Anthropologists.[1][6][8]
Selected works
Books
- Howells, William W. (1944). Mankind So Far. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Co.
- Howells, William W. (1948). The Heathens; Primitive Man and his Religions. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Co.
- Howells, William W. (1954). Back of History: The Story of our own origins. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Co.
- Howells, William W. (1959). Mankind in the Making: The Story of Human Evolution. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Co.
- Howells, William W. (1973). Evolution of the Genus Homo. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
- Howells, William W. (1973). The Pacific Islanders. New York: Scribners.
- Howells, William W. (1992). Getting Here: The Story of Human Evolution. Washington, D.C.: The Compass Press.
Monographs
- Howells, William W. (1973). Cranial Variation in Man: A Study by Multivariate Analysis of Patterns of Difference Among Recent Human Populations.
- Howells, William W. (1989). Skull Shapes and the Map: Craniometric Analyses in the Dispersion of Modern Homo.
- Howells, William W. (1995). Who's Who in Skulls: Ethnic Identification of Crania from Measurements.
References
- 1 2 Godfrey, Laurie R. (2008). "From the shoulders of a giant: Perspectives on the legacy of William White Howells (1908-2005)". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 137 (S47): 118–126. doi:10.1002/ajpa.20951. ISSN 0002-9483.
- ↑ "Obituaries for Thu. December 22, 2005". seacoastonline.com. December 22, 2005. Retrieved October 19, 2015.
- ↑ "William W. Howells". britannica.com. Retrieved October 19, 2015.
- ↑ "William W. Howells; Anthropologist Advanced Studies of Humans". The Washington Post. December 29, 2005. Retrieved October 19, 2015.
- ↑ "AAA Past Presidents". americananthro.org. American Anthropological Association. Retrieved October 19, 2015.
- 1 2 "William and Muriel Howells Endow Peabody Museum Directorship". news.harvard.edu. 22 January 1998. Retrieved October 19, 2015.
- ↑ Saxon, Wolfgang (December 30, 2005). "William W. Howells, Leading Anthropologist, Is Dead at 97". The New York Times. Retrieved October 19, 2015.
- ↑ McHenry, Henry M.; Delson, Eric (2008). "Obituary: William White Howells (1908-2005)" (PDF). American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 135 (3): 249–251. doi:10.1002/ajpa.20777. ISSN 0002-9483.