This issue of the American Journal of Physicai Anthropology is dedicated in honor of our friend and colleague
J. LAWRENCE ANGEL
AM. J. PHYS. ANTHROP.(1979)51: 507-516.
J. LAWRENCE ANGEL
J. LAWRENCE ANGEL T. DALESTEWART
Once before a t a n annual meeting of this Association-the one in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1972-1 had the privilege of presenting a resume of the career of a distinguished member being honored: Bill Krogman. Like Bill, our honoree today, Larry Angel, has had careers in two fields, anatomy and physical anthropology. Also, both Bill and Larry once resided in Philadelphia. Although further similarities come to mind, such as a common interest in forensic anthropology, I find the dissimilarities more engaging. For instance, Bill is tall, Larry short; Bill is noted for his great store of ribald stories; Larry for a lack of such stories, which is not to say that he is humorless, but only that he is not given to telling such stories (or like me, may have trouble remembering the punch lines). Bill came eventually to a major interest in child growth and development; Larry started with and has maintained a major interest in the Ancient Greeks. My reason for contrasting these two good friends, aside from the purpose of introduction, is t o emphasize the fact that the people who engage in physical anthropology are difficult to stereotype. And speaking of types, I’ll come t o some of a different sort. Larry became a member of our Association a t the eleventh annual meeting held a t the American Museum of Natural History in New York in May of 1940. The year before that the Association had celebrated the seventieth birthday of its founder, Dr. Hrdlicka, by announcing the publication of an anniversary volume of the Journal. So one of the features of the annual dinner in 1940 was the presentation to Dr. HrdliCka of a leather-bound copy of the volume honoring him. In retrospect this event appears prophetic, because since 1962 Larry has been ably occupying the position of Curator in the National Museum which HrdliCka held for 40 years. When Larry joined the Association he had only recently returned from a three-year sojourn in Greece, where he had worked on skeletons in museums and excavations under the auspices of Harvard University and the American School of Classical Studies a t Athens. He was accompanied t o Greece by his bride, Peggy Richardson, the two having been brought together in the Harvard-Radcliff singing groups. I don’t know whether Larry and Peggy sang together in Greece as they pieced skulls together,
509
510
J. LAWRENCE ANGEL
but I do know that they still enjoy choral singing. Also, Peggy has continued to be Larry’s invaluable field associate whenever she could be spared from home. Back a t Harvard after the first trip to Greece, Larry worked up his skeletal data and in 1942 submitted his doctoral dissertation entitled “A preliminary study of the relations of race to culture based on Ancient Greek skeletal material.” From this beginning, aptly characterized as “preliminary,” he went on to issue a succession of reports, many of them included as appendices in the reports of eminently classical archeologists. Indeed, to judge from Larry’s bibliography, he holds some sort of a record as an appendix writer: a t least 25 by my count. In the course of time Larry extended the areal coverage of his investigations beyond Greece to Cyprus, Israel and Turkey. His return to that part of the world ten times between 1949 and 1979 is a measure of his consuming interest in the biological history of these peoples. As a result, it is safe to say that Larry has contributed most of what we know along this line. Without his persistence many of the skeletons he has studied would not have been removed from the ground and many of those that reached the museums would not have been reconstructed and studied. It is important to note that, in spite of the small size of most of the skeletal samples from any one place or time period, Larry was able to reach wide-ranging conclusions. In the main this was because sample size forced him to develop and relay upon his own version of Hooton’s skull types. In defending his reliance on types in one publication on Greek remains (’44) he wrote: The types are too rigid and somewhat too composite to reflect precisely all the subtleties of genetic fluctuations in the Greek population. But they do have some genetic reality, and in clarifying the process of new genetic additions during invasions with subsequent mixture and recombinations they give a much more brilliant picture than averages alone. And I conclude that use of types even unsupported by elaborate statistical testing,. . . is a completely valid process as long as the artificial rigidity of such types is recognized.
Although most other physical anthropologists either never took to, or soon abandoned, the use of skull types, Larry still finds them useful when interpreted cautiously. His current view of this matter probably is still the one in his book on Lerna (’71): . . . the history of anthropology shows typologies to be dangerous; as oversimplifications, they have been used for the worst purposes of generalizations and racism [As an aside, Larry went into Greek social biology in the 1930s partly to seek an answer to Nazi racist interpretations.1 The semantics of types is especially tricky. Hence, when I note that a particular trait complex, part of a type tendency, occurs frequently in Early Neolithic and Bronze Age Lycia, the inference of connections in each case is tentative-a suggestion to be tested by further comparison and by the total logic of possible demographic, archeological, and historical data. [Onel must remain properly skeptical
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
and remember the principle of parsimony: [namely,] the simplest explanation for concentration of a given skull peculiarity or for a change in heterogeneity of many skull combinations is most likely to be right.
I admire the way Larry has stuck to his guns in this controversial matter. After finishing at Harvard, Larry taught briefly in the anthropology departments of the California-Berkley and Minnesota-Minneapolis before going to Philadelphia in 1943 to join the staff of the Department of Anatomy at Jefferson Medical College. The vacancy a t Jefferson was created by circumstances related to the war, including an accelerated schedule of teaching in all medical schools. I am well aware of this personally, because in 1943 I, too, was called upon to teach anatomy, but at Washington University, St. Louis, and only for the half year beginning July 1. My first clear recollection of meeting Larry dates t o the mid-1940’s. He had come to Washington to examine a collection of Bronze Age skeletal remains from Corinth, Greece, donated to the National Museum by F. 0. Waage, 111, a cousin of Professor J. Parsons Shaeffer, head of the Anatomy Department at Jefferson. (Incidentally, I am not sure that Larry knows that the Waage collection was restored and accessioned by Marc Goldstein in 1931 while I was away at medical school. The report prepared by Hrdlieka for T. Leslie Shear of Princeton under whom Waage served during the work a t Corinth, seems not to have been published.) The acquaintance that began in this way was mutually beneficial from the start, because as the new Editor of the Journal (Hrdlieka had given the JournaE t o the Wistar in 1942) I was looking for manuscripts (remember that it was war time) and Larry was looking for a publisher. Three of Larry’s papers on the Ancient Greeks appeared in the Journal during my brief editorship. One of the necessities of historical physical anthropology is continuity of standardized observations, both metrical and non-metrical. From my association with Hrdlieka I learned that he almost never deviated from the pattern of data collection begun early in his career. The same was true of Adolph Schultz as regards his collection of data on the nonhuman primates. In following this same rule, the basis of Larry’s procedures has always been a modified version of the Peabody set of anthropometric forms. This fact gives me assurance that Larry’s records made in the late 1930s are fully comparable with those he is making today. Some of the things that Larry has tried t o get at in his skeletal studies are indicated by key words and phrases i n the titles of his publications: Race, social factors, genetic factors, longevity, health, microevolution,
511
512
J. LAWRENCE ANGEL
paleodemography, paleoecology. Even though sometimes perforce the titles indicate only that the papers deal with skeletal remains, the treatment is never limited t o anthropometry. On the other hand, the measurements are never abstracted through extended statistical treatment; they appear in full, often supported by carefully-posed photographs of the individual specimens. Larry has never left photography to chance; he gives the camera and the calipers about equal time. Only once has Larry allowed himself t o be diverted far from his consuming interest in the ancient peoples of the Eastern Mediterranean. This radical diversion, carried out while he was a t Jefferson, took the form of an investigation into the significance of excessive obesity in modern females. Stating his objectives in the form of questions, Larry asked: “Who gets f a t ? . . . How far can anthropology illuminate the causes of obesity?” This brave effort to break into a radically different field was short-lived and resulted in only three major papers, one of them in a psychiatric journal. So far as anthropology is concerned, his finding that the obese females can be described as endomorphic, seems to me simply to document the obvious. Anyway, Larry must have come away from this experience with reservations about the possibility of ever assessing bodybuild from skeletal remains. Larry was on firmer grounds when he turned to paleopathology. Although the beginnings of this interest are manifest in the instances of pathological states identified and illustrated in his skeletal reports, the pathological states themselves received his concentrated attention only after he settled in Washington. The first of these states that he tackled was the reaction to stress in the area around the femoral neck. He SUCceeded here in clearing away the confusion of indications, names and attributed causes left by previous investigators. In this he was aided by his superb anatomical knowledge of the joint structures involved. More recently, Larry concentrated his attention on the abnormal alterations in bony structure known as osteoporosis and spongy or porotic hyperostosis. He made out a good case for the latter in the ancient Greeks being evidence of thalasemia (Mediterranean anemia). To bolster his arguments in support of this attribution he drew upon his broad knowledge of Greek social biology and of the environments in past times. Larry is unsurpassed in such reconstructions. In Washington a departure from his predominant interest was forced upon Larry by the need for him to assume the duty, long performed by his predecessors there, of examining skeletal remains for the FBI. Because of his anatomical background, Larry took t o forensic anthropology, as the
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
saying goes, “like a duck t o water.” As yet he has published only two papers in this field, both in the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, so it may not be widely known that he carries an extremely high forensic case load and is regarded as one of the top experts in the field. Last year he was made a Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. I have the impression that Larry regards research and forensic identification simply as interesting work, but that he finds teaching really enjoyable. Having been connected with teaching institutions before he entered the museum world, he viewed the move t o Washington as no reason to withdraw from academic life. Accordingly, soon after his arrival he established a connection with George Washington University and has been teaching a course in physical anthropology there ever since. In addition, each December he gives an intensive two-week course in forensic anthropology to a visting group of forensic pathologists. Moreover, he is always available t o anyone interested in observing his anthropometric techniques. Regardless of who this may be, he or she is welcome to sit by his side as he applies the calipers to whichever specimen he is studying at the time. The visitor is told the reason for taking each measurement or observation, the correct way to do it, and whether or not it is normal. Surely everyone who has had this experience remembers the kind and unstinting way in which Larry shares his time and knowledge. Finally, it must be noted that Larry has been unstinting also in his service to our Association. He was Secretary-Treasurer from 1952 to 1956; Vice-president in 1959-60,and Associate Editor of the Journal from 1951 to 1954 and again from 1960 t o 1963. In 1962, almost singlehanded, he organized the thirty-first annual meeting that met in Philadelphia. And again in 1970 a t the thirty-ninth annual meeting in Washington he bore the main burden of the local arrangements. These, of course, are but the most visible of the services he has rendered the Association. Throughout this resume of Larry’s career, I have pursued a chronologic course, mainly because any ranking of scientific activities involves personal bias. Although many details have been omitted, I feel that enough have been given to show t h a t Larry is the kind of scholar we all admire. That he has done much to advance the science of physical anthropology, and a t the same time has remained a gentle, good-natured person, is evident. It is for all this that we, his friends and colleagues, honor him on this occasion. T. DALESTEWART SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.
513
514
J. LAWRENCE ANGEL BIBLIOGRAPHY
1939 Geometric Athenians. In: Late Geometric Graves and a Seventh Century Well in the Agora, by R. S. Young. Hesperia, Supplement 11, pp. 236-246. The Babakoy skeleton. Arch. f. Orientfor., 13: 28-31. 1942 A Preliminary Study of the Relations of Race to Culture, Based on Ancient Greek Skeletal Material. Thesis (Ph.D.), Harvard University. Classical Olynthians. In: Excavations a t Olynthus. XI. Necrolynthia, a Study in Greek Burial Customs and Anthropology, by D. M. Robinson. Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, pp. 211-240. 1943 Treatment of archaeological skulls. Anthrop. Briefs, 3: 3-8. Ancient Cephallenians; the population of a Mediterranean island. Am. J . Phys. Anthrop., 1: 229-260. 1944 A racial analysis of the ancient Greeks; a n essay on the use of morphological types. Am. J. Phys. Anthrop., 2: 329-376. Greek teeth: ancient and modern. Human Biol., 16: 283-297. 1945 Anthropology of Poland: prehistory and race. In: Poland, by B. E. Schmitt. University of California Press, Berkeley, pp. 10-28. Skeletal material from Attica. Hesperia, 14: 279-363. Neolithic ancestors of the Greeks. Am. J. Archaeol., 49: 252-260. 1946 Skeletal change in ancient Greece. Am. J . Phys. Anthrop., 4: 69-97. Social biology of Greek culture growth. Am. Anthrop., 48: 493-533. Race, type, and ethnic group in ancient Greece. Human Biol., 18: 1-32. 1947 The length of life in ancient Greece. J. Gerontol., 2: 18-24. 1948 Health and the course of civilization. The Interne, 14: 15-17, 19-45. Factors in temporomandibular joint form. Am. J. Anat., 83: 223-246. Los Griegos desde el punto de vista del anthropologo. Ciencia e Invest., Buenos Aires, 6: 232-237. Physical anthropology in 1947; time of transition. Yrbk. Phys. Anthrop., 3 (1947): 1-10. 1949 Constitution in female obesity. Am. J. Phys. Anthrop., 7: 433-471. 1950 (Anonymous) [Photography in field work.] In: New techniques in physical anthropology. A report of the fifth summer seminar in physical anthropology, by Bernice A. Kaplan. Yrbk. Phys. Anthrop., 5(1949): 24-25. 1951 Skeletons. Archaeol., 3: 233-241. Population size and microevolution in Greece. Cold Spring Harbor Sym. Quant. Biol., 15: 343-351. Troy: the human remains. Supplementary monograph I to Troy excavations, 1932-1938.C. W. Blegen and others, eds. Published for the University of Cincinnati by the Princeton University Press. 40 pp. plates and tables. (Anonymous) Anthropometry and measurements. In: The scope of physical anthropology: What is to be taught? A report of the sixth annual summer seminar in physical anthropology, by Bernice A. Kaplan. Yrbk. Phys. Anthrop., 6(1950): 27-29. The human remains of post-Pleistocene man from Belt cave. (With C. S. Coon.) In: Cave exploration in Iran, 1949, by C. S. Coon. Mus. Mon. Univ. Mus., Philadelphia, 5: 79-88. 1952 (With R. W. Ehrich) The human skeletal remains from Hotu cave, Iran. Proc. Am. Philos. SOC.,96: 258-269. The Wenner-Gren summer seminar in physical anthropology. Science, 11 5: 230-231. 1953 The human remains from Khirokitia. In: Khirokitia; Final Report on the Excavation of a Neolithic Settlement in Cyprus on Behalf of the Department of Antiquities, 1936-1946, by P. Dikaios. Oxford University Press, London, pp. 416-430. (With R. R. Schopbach) Obesity: a n etiologic study. Psychiat. Quart., 27: 452-462. 1954 (With C. S. Coon) The temporomandibular joint in relation to facial structure. Yrbk. Phys. Anthrop., 80952): 322. La Cotte de St. Brelade 11: present status. Man, 54: (No. 76): 53-55. Classical archaeology and the anthropological approach. In: Studies Presented to David M. Robinson on his Seventieth Birthday. G. E. Mylonas, ed. Washington University, St. Louis, pp. 1224-1231.
+
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
1955 Human biology, health, and history in Greece from first settlement until now. Yrbk. Am. Philos. SQC.,1954: pp. 168-172. Roman tombs a t Vasa: the skulls. In: Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, 1945-48, Nicosia, Cyprus, by J. DuP. Taylor. Appendix 111, pp. 68-76. Physical anthropologists. LReport of the 24th annual meeting a t Jefferson Medical College, April, 1955.1 Science, 122: 41. 1956 Anthropology and human variation. In: The Teaching of Anatomy and Anthropology in Medical Education (Report of the Third Teaching Institute, Association of American Medical Colleges, Swampscott, Massachusetts, October 18-22, 1955). William U. Garder and Committee, eds. Neely Printing Co., Chicago, Appendix D2, pp. 135-137. 1957 (Anonymous) Age changes in female obesity. Med. Sci. No. 2. 1958 Human biological changes in ancient Greece, with special reference to Lerna. Yrbk. Am. Philos. SOC.,1957, pp. 266-270. 1959 Early Helladic skulls from Aghios Kosmas. In: Aghios Kosmas; a n Early Bronze Age Settlement and Cemetery in Attica, by G. E. Mylonas. University of Princeton Press, Princeton, pp. 167-179. 1960 Physical and psychological factors in culture growth. In: Men and Culture; Selected Papers of the Fifth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, Philadelphia, 1956. A. F. C. Wallace, ed. Philadelphia, pp. 16651-670. Age change in obesity. Human Biol., 32; 342-365. W. W. Greulich; Viking Fund medalist for 1959. Am. J . Phys. Anthrop., 18: 231-234. 1961 Neolithic crania from Sotira. In: Sotira, by P. Dikaios. Mus. Mon. Univ. Mus., Philadelphia, Appendix I, pp. 223-229. 1963 Physical anthropology and medicine. J. Nat. Med. Assn., 55: 107-116. 1964 The reaction area of the femoral neck. Clin. Orthop., 32: 130-142. Prehistoric man. In: New Perspectives in World History (Thirty-fourth Yearbook of the National Council for the Social Sciences). Shirley H. Engle, ed. National Education Association, Washington, D.C., pp. 96-117. Osteoporosis: Thalassemia? Am. J. Phys. Anthrop., 22: 369-373. 1965 (With Paul T. Baker.) Old age changes in bone density; sex, and race factors in the United States. Human Biol., 37: 104-121. 1966 Human skeletal remains a t Karatas. In: Excavations a t Karatas-Semayuk in Lycia, 1965, by M. J. Mellink. Am. J. Archaeol., 70: Appendix, pp. 255-257. Porotic hyperostosis, anemias, malarias and marshes in the prehistoric eastern Mediterranean. Science, I53 (3737): 760-763 (Reprinted in 1975 with revised table in: Population: Dynamics, Ethics, and Policy. Priscilla Reining and Irene Tinker, eds. American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, D.C., pp. 96-98.) Early skeletons from Tranquillity, California. Smithsonian Contr. Anthrop., 2 (1): 19 PP. 1967 Porotic hyperostosis or osteoporosis symmetrica. In: Diseases in Antiquity; a Survey of the Diseases, Injuries and Surgery of Early Populations. D. Brothwell and A. T. Sanderson, eds. Charles C Thomas, Springfield, Illinois, pp. 378-389. Effects of human biological factors in development of civilization. Yrbk. Am. Philos. SOC.,1966, pp. 315-317. 1968 Human remains a t Karatas. In: Excavations a t Karatas-Semayuk in Lycia 1967, by M. J. Mellink. Am. J. Archaeol., 72: Appendix, pp. 260-263. Ecological aspects of palaeodemography. In: The Skeletal Biology of Earlier Human Populations. D. R. Brothwell, ed. Pergamon Press, Oxford, pp. 263-270. Human skeletal material from Slovenia. In: Mecklenburg Collection, Part I, by Sandor Bokonyi. Hugh Hencken, ed. Bull. Am. Sch. Prehist. Res., Peabody Museum, Harvard University, 25: 75-108. 1969 The bases of paleodemography. Am. J. Phys. Anthrop., 30: 427-437. Paleodemography and evolution. Am. J. Phys. Anthrop., 31: 343-353. Human skeletal material from Franchthi cave. In: Excavations a t Porto Cheli and Vicinity, Preliminary Report 11, the Franchthi Cave, 1967-1968, by T. W. Jacobson. Hisperia, 38: Appendix 11, pp. 380-381.
515
516
J. LAWRENCE ANGEL
1970 Human skeletal remains a t Karatas. In: Excavations a t Karatas-Semayuk and Elmali, Lycia, 1969, by M. J. Mellink. Am. J. Archaeol., 74: Appendix, pp.253-259. 1971 The People of Lerna: Analysis of a Prehistoric Aegean Population. American School of Classical Studies a t Athens, Princeton, N.J. and Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., xi + 159 pp. Diseases and culture in the ancient East Mediterranean. In: Proceedings of the Anthropological Congress Dedicated to Alee HrdliEka, Prague and Humpolec, 1969, V. V. Novotny, ed. Academia, Prague, pp. 503-508. Human skeletal material from the Church of the Holy Apostles. In: The Church of the Holy Apostles, by Alison Frantz. The Athenian Agora, vol. XX. American School of Classical Studies a t Athens, Princeton, N.J., pp. 30-31. Early Neolithic skeletons from Catal Huyuk: demography and pathology. Anatolian Studies, 21; 77-98. 1972 Biological relations of Egyptian and Eastern Mediterranean populations during Pre-dynastic and Dynastic times. J. Human Evol., I : 307-313. Genetic and social factors in a Cypriote village. Human Biol., 44: 53-79. Ecology and population in the Eastern Mediterranean. World Archaeol., 4; 88-105. A middle palaeolithic temporal bone from Darra-i-Kur, Afghanistan. Trans. Am. Philos. Soc., 62(Pt. 4): 54-56. 1973 Human skeletons from grave circles a t Mycenae. In: [The Grave Circle B of Mycenae!, by G. E. Mylonas. The Archaeological Society of Athens, pp. 379-397. Skeletal fragments of classical Lycians. In: Excavations a t Karatas-Semayuk and Elmal: Lycia, 1972. Am. J . Archaeol., 77: Appendix, pp. 303-307. Keolithic human remains. In: Excavations in the Franchthi Cave, 1969-1971, Part 11, by M. J. Mellink. Hesperia, 42: Appendix, pp. 277-282. Late Bronze Age Cypriotes from Bamboula. In: Bamboula a t Kourion; the necropolis, etc., by J. L. Benson. MUS. Mon. Univ. Mus. Philadelphia, pp. 148.165. 1974 Bones can fool people. FBI Law Enf. Bull., 4 3 ( 1 ) : 16-20, 30. The cultural ecology of general versus dental health. In: Bevolkerungsbiologie. Beitrage zur Struktur und Dynamik menschlicher Populationen in anthropologischer Sicht. Wolfram Bernhard und Anneliese Kandler, eds. G. Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart, pp. 382-391. Early Neolithic people of Nea Nikomedeia. In: Fundamenta. Die Anfange des Neolithikums vom Orient bis Nordeuropa. Teil VIII a. Anthropologie, 1. Schwidetzky, ed. Bohlau Verlag, Koln, Wien, pp. 103-112. Patterns of fractures from Neolithic to modern times. Anthropologiai Kozlemenyek, Akademiai Kiado, Budapest, 28 (Festschrift for P. Liptak and Janos Nemeskeri): 9-18. 1975 Paleoecology, paleodemography and health. In: Population, Ecology, and Social Evolution, Steven Polgar, ed. (IX International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, Chicago, 1973). Mouton, The Hague, pp. 167-190. Human skeletons from Eleusis. In: LThe South Cemetery of Eleusisl, by G . E. Mylonas. Library of the Archaeological Society of Athens, No. 81, 14 pp. and 4 plates. 1976 Early bronze Karatas people and their cemeteries. In: Excavations in the Elmali area, Lycia, 1975, by M. J. Mellink. Am. J. Archaeol., 80; Appendix, pp. 385-391. Colonial t o modern skeletal change in the U.S.A. Am. J. Phys. Anthrop., 45: 723-735. Introduction to symposium in honor of T. Dale Stewart. Am. J. Phys. Anthrop., 45: 519-530. 1977 Human skeletons lfrom Kephalal. In: Kephala, a Late Neolithic Settlement and Cemetery, by J. E. Coleman. American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Princeton, N.J., Appendix 5, pp. 133-156. (With D. G. Cherry.) Personality reconstruction from unidentified remains. FBI Law Enf. Bull., 46(8); 12-15. Anemias of antiquity: Eastern Mediterranean. Paleopath. Assn. Mon. NO. 2: 1-5.
J. LAWRENCE ANGEL
AM. J. PHYS. ANTHROP.(1979)51: 507-516.
J. LAWRENCE ANGEL
J. LAWRENCE ANGEL T. DALESTEWART
Once before a t a n annual meeting of this Association-the one in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1972-1 had the privilege of presenting a resume of the career of a distinguished member being honored: Bill Krogman. Like Bill, our honoree today, Larry Angel, has had careers in two fields, anatomy and physical anthropology. Also, both Bill and Larry once resided in Philadelphia. Although further similarities come to mind, such as a common interest in forensic anthropology, I find the dissimilarities more engaging. For instance, Bill is tall, Larry short; Bill is noted for his great store of ribald stories; Larry for a lack of such stories, which is not to say that he is humorless, but only that he is not given to telling such stories (or like me, may have trouble remembering the punch lines). Bill came eventually to a major interest in child growth and development; Larry started with and has maintained a major interest in the Ancient Greeks. My reason for contrasting these two good friends, aside from the purpose of introduction, is t o emphasize the fact that the people who engage in physical anthropology are difficult to stereotype. And speaking of types, I’ll come t o some of a different sort. Larry became a member of our Association a t the eleventh annual meeting held a t the American Museum of Natural History in New York in May of 1940. The year before that the Association had celebrated the seventieth birthday of its founder, Dr. Hrdlicka, by announcing the publication of an anniversary volume of the Journal. So one of the features of the annual dinner in 1940 was the presentation to Dr. HrdliCka of a leather-bound copy of the volume honoring him. In retrospect this event appears prophetic, because since 1962 Larry has been ably occupying the position of Curator in the National Museum which HrdliCka held for 40 years. When Larry joined the Association he had only recently returned from a three-year sojourn in Greece, where he had worked on skeletons in museums and excavations under the auspices of Harvard University and the American School of Classical Studies a t Athens. He was accompanied t o Greece by his bride, Peggy Richardson, the two having been brought together in the Harvard-Radcliff singing groups. I don’t know whether Larry and Peggy sang together in Greece as they pieced skulls together,
509
510
J. LAWRENCE ANGEL
but I do know that they still enjoy choral singing. Also, Peggy has continued to be Larry’s invaluable field associate whenever she could be spared from home. Back a t Harvard after the first trip to Greece, Larry worked up his skeletal data and in 1942 submitted his doctoral dissertation entitled “A preliminary study of the relations of race to culture based on Ancient Greek skeletal material.” From this beginning, aptly characterized as “preliminary,” he went on to issue a succession of reports, many of them included as appendices in the reports of eminently classical archeologists. Indeed, to judge from Larry’s bibliography, he holds some sort of a record as an appendix writer: a t least 25 by my count. In the course of time Larry extended the areal coverage of his investigations beyond Greece to Cyprus, Israel and Turkey. His return to that part of the world ten times between 1949 and 1979 is a measure of his consuming interest in the biological history of these peoples. As a result, it is safe to say that Larry has contributed most of what we know along this line. Without his persistence many of the skeletons he has studied would not have been removed from the ground and many of those that reached the museums would not have been reconstructed and studied. It is important to note that, in spite of the small size of most of the skeletal samples from any one place or time period, Larry was able to reach wide-ranging conclusions. In the main this was because sample size forced him to develop and relay upon his own version of Hooton’s skull types. In defending his reliance on types in one publication on Greek remains (’44) he wrote: The types are too rigid and somewhat too composite to reflect precisely all the subtleties of genetic fluctuations in the Greek population. But they do have some genetic reality, and in clarifying the process of new genetic additions during invasions with subsequent mixture and recombinations they give a much more brilliant picture than averages alone. And I conclude that use of types even unsupported by elaborate statistical testing,. . . is a completely valid process as long as the artificial rigidity of such types is recognized.
Although most other physical anthropologists either never took to, or soon abandoned, the use of skull types, Larry still finds them useful when interpreted cautiously. His current view of this matter probably is still the one in his book on Lerna (’71): . . . the history of anthropology shows typologies to be dangerous; as oversimplifications, they have been used for the worst purposes of generalizations and racism [As an aside, Larry went into Greek social biology in the 1930s partly to seek an answer to Nazi racist interpretations.1 The semantics of types is especially tricky. Hence, when I note that a particular trait complex, part of a type tendency, occurs frequently in Early Neolithic and Bronze Age Lycia, the inference of connections in each case is tentative-a suggestion to be tested by further comparison and by the total logic of possible demographic, archeological, and historical data. [Onel must remain properly skeptical
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
and remember the principle of parsimony: [namely,] the simplest explanation for concentration of a given skull peculiarity or for a change in heterogeneity of many skull combinations is most likely to be right.
I admire the way Larry has stuck to his guns in this controversial matter. After finishing at Harvard, Larry taught briefly in the anthropology departments of the California-Berkley and Minnesota-Minneapolis before going to Philadelphia in 1943 to join the staff of the Department of Anatomy at Jefferson Medical College. The vacancy a t Jefferson was created by circumstances related to the war, including an accelerated schedule of teaching in all medical schools. I am well aware of this personally, because in 1943 I, too, was called upon to teach anatomy, but at Washington University, St. Louis, and only for the half year beginning July 1. My first clear recollection of meeting Larry dates t o the mid-1940’s. He had come to Washington to examine a collection of Bronze Age skeletal remains from Corinth, Greece, donated to the National Museum by F. 0. Waage, 111, a cousin of Professor J. Parsons Shaeffer, head of the Anatomy Department at Jefferson. (Incidentally, I am not sure that Larry knows that the Waage collection was restored and accessioned by Marc Goldstein in 1931 while I was away at medical school. The report prepared by Hrdlieka for T. Leslie Shear of Princeton under whom Waage served during the work a t Corinth, seems not to have been published.) The acquaintance that began in this way was mutually beneficial from the start, because as the new Editor of the Journal (Hrdlieka had given the JournaE t o the Wistar in 1942) I was looking for manuscripts (remember that it was war time) and Larry was looking for a publisher. Three of Larry’s papers on the Ancient Greeks appeared in the Journal during my brief editorship. One of the necessities of historical physical anthropology is continuity of standardized observations, both metrical and non-metrical. From my association with Hrdlieka I learned that he almost never deviated from the pattern of data collection begun early in his career. The same was true of Adolph Schultz as regards his collection of data on the nonhuman primates. In following this same rule, the basis of Larry’s procedures has always been a modified version of the Peabody set of anthropometric forms. This fact gives me assurance that Larry’s records made in the late 1930s are fully comparable with those he is making today. Some of the things that Larry has tried t o get at in his skeletal studies are indicated by key words and phrases i n the titles of his publications: Race, social factors, genetic factors, longevity, health, microevolution,
511
512
J. LAWRENCE ANGEL
paleodemography, paleoecology. Even though sometimes perforce the titles indicate only that the papers deal with skeletal remains, the treatment is never limited t o anthropometry. On the other hand, the measurements are never abstracted through extended statistical treatment; they appear in full, often supported by carefully-posed photographs of the individual specimens. Larry has never left photography to chance; he gives the camera and the calipers about equal time. Only once has Larry allowed himself t o be diverted far from his consuming interest in the ancient peoples of the Eastern Mediterranean. This radical diversion, carried out while he was a t Jefferson, took the form of an investigation into the significance of excessive obesity in modern females. Stating his objectives in the form of questions, Larry asked: “Who gets f a t ? . . . How far can anthropology illuminate the causes of obesity?” This brave effort to break into a radically different field was short-lived and resulted in only three major papers, one of them in a psychiatric journal. So far as anthropology is concerned, his finding that the obese females can be described as endomorphic, seems to me simply to document the obvious. Anyway, Larry must have come away from this experience with reservations about the possibility of ever assessing bodybuild from skeletal remains. Larry was on firmer grounds when he turned to paleopathology. Although the beginnings of this interest are manifest in the instances of pathological states identified and illustrated in his skeletal reports, the pathological states themselves received his concentrated attention only after he settled in Washington. The first of these states that he tackled was the reaction to stress in the area around the femoral neck. He SUCceeded here in clearing away the confusion of indications, names and attributed causes left by previous investigators. In this he was aided by his superb anatomical knowledge of the joint structures involved. More recently, Larry concentrated his attention on the abnormal alterations in bony structure known as osteoporosis and spongy or porotic hyperostosis. He made out a good case for the latter in the ancient Greeks being evidence of thalasemia (Mediterranean anemia). To bolster his arguments in support of this attribution he drew upon his broad knowledge of Greek social biology and of the environments in past times. Larry is unsurpassed in such reconstructions. In Washington a departure from his predominant interest was forced upon Larry by the need for him to assume the duty, long performed by his predecessors there, of examining skeletal remains for the FBI. Because of his anatomical background, Larry took t o forensic anthropology, as the
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
saying goes, “like a duck t o water.” As yet he has published only two papers in this field, both in the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, so it may not be widely known that he carries an extremely high forensic case load and is regarded as one of the top experts in the field. Last year he was made a Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. I have the impression that Larry regards research and forensic identification simply as interesting work, but that he finds teaching really enjoyable. Having been connected with teaching institutions before he entered the museum world, he viewed the move t o Washington as no reason to withdraw from academic life. Accordingly, soon after his arrival he established a connection with George Washington University and has been teaching a course in physical anthropology there ever since. In addition, each December he gives an intensive two-week course in forensic anthropology to a visting group of forensic pathologists. Moreover, he is always available t o anyone interested in observing his anthropometric techniques. Regardless of who this may be, he or she is welcome to sit by his side as he applies the calipers to whichever specimen he is studying at the time. The visitor is told the reason for taking each measurement or observation, the correct way to do it, and whether or not it is normal. Surely everyone who has had this experience remembers the kind and unstinting way in which Larry shares his time and knowledge. Finally, it must be noted that Larry has been unstinting also in his service to our Association. He was Secretary-Treasurer from 1952 to 1956; Vice-president in 1959-60,and Associate Editor of the Journal from 1951 to 1954 and again from 1960 t o 1963. In 1962, almost singlehanded, he organized the thirty-first annual meeting that met in Philadelphia. And again in 1970 a t the thirty-ninth annual meeting in Washington he bore the main burden of the local arrangements. These, of course, are but the most visible of the services he has rendered the Association. Throughout this resume of Larry’s career, I have pursued a chronologic course, mainly because any ranking of scientific activities involves personal bias. Although many details have been omitted, I feel that enough have been given to show t h a t Larry is the kind of scholar we all admire. That he has done much to advance the science of physical anthropology, and a t the same time has remained a gentle, good-natured person, is evident. It is for all this that we, his friends and colleagues, honor him on this occasion. T. DALESTEWART SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.
513
514
J. LAWRENCE ANGEL BIBLIOGRAPHY
1939 Geometric Athenians. In: Late Geometric Graves and a Seventh Century Well in the Agora, by R. S. Young. Hesperia, Supplement 11, pp. 236-246. The Babakoy skeleton. Arch. f. Orientfor., 13: 28-31. 1942 A Preliminary Study of the Relations of Race to Culture, Based on Ancient Greek Skeletal Material. Thesis (Ph.D.), Harvard University. Classical Olynthians. In: Excavations a t Olynthus. XI. Necrolynthia, a Study in Greek Burial Customs and Anthropology, by D. M. Robinson. Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, pp. 211-240. 1943 Treatment of archaeological skulls. Anthrop. Briefs, 3: 3-8. Ancient Cephallenians; the population of a Mediterranean island. Am. J . Phys. Anthrop., 1: 229-260. 1944 A racial analysis of the ancient Greeks; a n essay on the use of morphological types. Am. J. Phys. Anthrop., 2: 329-376. Greek teeth: ancient and modern. Human Biol., 16: 283-297. 1945 Anthropology of Poland: prehistory and race. In: Poland, by B. E. Schmitt. University of California Press, Berkeley, pp. 10-28. Skeletal material from Attica. Hesperia, 14: 279-363. Neolithic ancestors of the Greeks. Am. J. Archaeol., 49: 252-260. 1946 Skeletal change in ancient Greece. Am. J . Phys. Anthrop., 4: 69-97. Social biology of Greek culture growth. Am. Anthrop., 48: 493-533. Race, type, and ethnic group in ancient Greece. Human Biol., 18: 1-32. 1947 The length of life in ancient Greece. J. Gerontol., 2: 18-24. 1948 Health and the course of civilization. The Interne, 14: 15-17, 19-45. Factors in temporomandibular joint form. Am. J. Anat., 83: 223-246. Los Griegos desde el punto de vista del anthropologo. Ciencia e Invest., Buenos Aires, 6: 232-237. Physical anthropology in 1947; time of transition. Yrbk. Phys. Anthrop., 3 (1947): 1-10. 1949 Constitution in female obesity. Am. J. Phys. Anthrop., 7: 433-471. 1950 (Anonymous) [Photography in field work.] In: New techniques in physical anthropology. A report of the fifth summer seminar in physical anthropology, by Bernice A. Kaplan. Yrbk. Phys. Anthrop., 5(1949): 24-25. 1951 Skeletons. Archaeol., 3: 233-241. Population size and microevolution in Greece. Cold Spring Harbor Sym. Quant. Biol., 15: 343-351. Troy: the human remains. Supplementary monograph I to Troy excavations, 1932-1938.C. W. Blegen and others, eds. Published for the University of Cincinnati by the Princeton University Press. 40 pp. plates and tables. (Anonymous) Anthropometry and measurements. In: The scope of physical anthropology: What is to be taught? A report of the sixth annual summer seminar in physical anthropology, by Bernice A. Kaplan. Yrbk. Phys. Anthrop., 6(1950): 27-29. The human remains of post-Pleistocene man from Belt cave. (With C. S. Coon.) In: Cave exploration in Iran, 1949, by C. S. Coon. Mus. Mon. Univ. Mus., Philadelphia, 5: 79-88. 1952 (With R. W. Ehrich) The human skeletal remains from Hotu cave, Iran. Proc. Am. Philos. SOC.,96: 258-269. The Wenner-Gren summer seminar in physical anthropology. Science, 11 5: 230-231. 1953 The human remains from Khirokitia. In: Khirokitia; Final Report on the Excavation of a Neolithic Settlement in Cyprus on Behalf of the Department of Antiquities, 1936-1946, by P. Dikaios. Oxford University Press, London, pp. 416-430. (With R. R. Schopbach) Obesity: a n etiologic study. Psychiat. Quart., 27: 452-462. 1954 (With C. S. Coon) The temporomandibular joint in relation to facial structure. Yrbk. Phys. Anthrop., 80952): 322. La Cotte de St. Brelade 11: present status. Man, 54: (No. 76): 53-55. Classical archaeology and the anthropological approach. In: Studies Presented to David M. Robinson on his Seventieth Birthday. G. E. Mylonas, ed. Washington University, St. Louis, pp. 1224-1231.
+
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
1955 Human biology, health, and history in Greece from first settlement until now. Yrbk. Am. Philos. SQC.,1954: pp. 168-172. Roman tombs a t Vasa: the skulls. In: Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, 1945-48, Nicosia, Cyprus, by J. DuP. Taylor. Appendix 111, pp. 68-76. Physical anthropologists. LReport of the 24th annual meeting a t Jefferson Medical College, April, 1955.1 Science, 122: 41. 1956 Anthropology and human variation. In: The Teaching of Anatomy and Anthropology in Medical Education (Report of the Third Teaching Institute, Association of American Medical Colleges, Swampscott, Massachusetts, October 18-22, 1955). William U. Garder and Committee, eds. Neely Printing Co., Chicago, Appendix D2, pp. 135-137. 1957 (Anonymous) Age changes in female obesity. Med. Sci. No. 2. 1958 Human biological changes in ancient Greece, with special reference to Lerna. Yrbk. Am. Philos. SOC.,1957, pp. 266-270. 1959 Early Helladic skulls from Aghios Kosmas. In: Aghios Kosmas; a n Early Bronze Age Settlement and Cemetery in Attica, by G. E. Mylonas. University of Princeton Press, Princeton, pp. 167-179. 1960 Physical and psychological factors in culture growth. In: Men and Culture; Selected Papers of the Fifth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, Philadelphia, 1956. A. F. C. Wallace, ed. Philadelphia, pp. 16651-670. Age change in obesity. Human Biol., 32; 342-365. W. W. Greulich; Viking Fund medalist for 1959. Am. J . Phys. Anthrop., 18: 231-234. 1961 Neolithic crania from Sotira. In: Sotira, by P. Dikaios. Mus. Mon. Univ. Mus., Philadelphia, Appendix I, pp. 223-229. 1963 Physical anthropology and medicine. J. Nat. Med. Assn., 55: 107-116. 1964 The reaction area of the femoral neck. Clin. Orthop., 32: 130-142. Prehistoric man. In: New Perspectives in World History (Thirty-fourth Yearbook of the National Council for the Social Sciences). Shirley H. Engle, ed. National Education Association, Washington, D.C., pp. 96-117. Osteoporosis: Thalassemia? Am. J. Phys. Anthrop., 22: 369-373. 1965 (With Paul T. Baker.) Old age changes in bone density; sex, and race factors in the United States. Human Biol., 37: 104-121. 1966 Human skeletal remains a t Karatas. In: Excavations a t Karatas-Semayuk in Lycia, 1965, by M. J. Mellink. Am. J. Archaeol., 70: Appendix, pp. 255-257. Porotic hyperostosis, anemias, malarias and marshes in the prehistoric eastern Mediterranean. Science, I53 (3737): 760-763 (Reprinted in 1975 with revised table in: Population: Dynamics, Ethics, and Policy. Priscilla Reining and Irene Tinker, eds. American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, D.C., pp. 96-98.) Early skeletons from Tranquillity, California. Smithsonian Contr. Anthrop., 2 (1): 19 PP. 1967 Porotic hyperostosis or osteoporosis symmetrica. In: Diseases in Antiquity; a Survey of the Diseases, Injuries and Surgery of Early Populations. D. Brothwell and A. T. Sanderson, eds. Charles C Thomas, Springfield, Illinois, pp. 378-389. Effects of human biological factors in development of civilization. Yrbk. Am. Philos. SOC.,1966, pp. 315-317. 1968 Human remains a t Karatas. In: Excavations a t Karatas-Semayuk in Lycia 1967, by M. J. Mellink. Am. J. Archaeol., 72: Appendix, pp. 260-263. Ecological aspects of palaeodemography. In: The Skeletal Biology of Earlier Human Populations. D. R. Brothwell, ed. Pergamon Press, Oxford, pp. 263-270. Human skeletal material from Slovenia. In: Mecklenburg Collection, Part I, by Sandor Bokonyi. Hugh Hencken, ed. Bull. Am. Sch. Prehist. Res., Peabody Museum, Harvard University, 25: 75-108. 1969 The bases of paleodemography. Am. J. Phys. Anthrop., 30: 427-437. Paleodemography and evolution. Am. J. Phys. Anthrop., 31: 343-353. Human skeletal material from Franchthi cave. In: Excavations a t Porto Cheli and Vicinity, Preliminary Report 11, the Franchthi Cave, 1967-1968, by T. W. Jacobson. Hisperia, 38: Appendix 11, pp. 380-381.
515
516
J. LAWRENCE ANGEL
1970 Human skeletal remains a t Karatas. In: Excavations a t Karatas-Semayuk and Elmali, Lycia, 1969, by M. J. Mellink. Am. J. Archaeol., 74: Appendix, pp.253-259. 1971 The People of Lerna: Analysis of a Prehistoric Aegean Population. American School of Classical Studies a t Athens, Princeton, N.J. and Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., xi + 159 pp. Diseases and culture in the ancient East Mediterranean. In: Proceedings of the Anthropological Congress Dedicated to Alee HrdliEka, Prague and Humpolec, 1969, V. V. Novotny, ed. Academia, Prague, pp. 503-508. Human skeletal material from the Church of the Holy Apostles. In: The Church of the Holy Apostles, by Alison Frantz. The Athenian Agora, vol. XX. American School of Classical Studies a t Athens, Princeton, N.J., pp. 30-31. Early Neolithic skeletons from Catal Huyuk: demography and pathology. Anatolian Studies, 21; 77-98. 1972 Biological relations of Egyptian and Eastern Mediterranean populations during Pre-dynastic and Dynastic times. J. Human Evol., I : 307-313. Genetic and social factors in a Cypriote village. Human Biol., 44: 53-79. Ecology and population in the Eastern Mediterranean. World Archaeol., 4; 88-105. A middle palaeolithic temporal bone from Darra-i-Kur, Afghanistan. Trans. Am. Philos. Soc., 62(Pt. 4): 54-56. 1973 Human skeletons from grave circles a t Mycenae. In: [The Grave Circle B of Mycenae!, by G. E. Mylonas. The Archaeological Society of Athens, pp. 379-397. Skeletal fragments of classical Lycians. In: Excavations a t Karatas-Semayuk and Elmal: Lycia, 1972. Am. J . Archaeol., 77: Appendix, pp. 303-307. Keolithic human remains. In: Excavations in the Franchthi Cave, 1969-1971, Part 11, by M. J. Mellink. Hesperia, 42: Appendix, pp. 277-282. Late Bronze Age Cypriotes from Bamboula. In: Bamboula a t Kourion; the necropolis, etc., by J. L. Benson. MUS. Mon. Univ. Mus. Philadelphia, pp. 148.165. 1974 Bones can fool people. FBI Law Enf. Bull., 4 3 ( 1 ) : 16-20, 30. The cultural ecology of general versus dental health. In: Bevolkerungsbiologie. Beitrage zur Struktur und Dynamik menschlicher Populationen in anthropologischer Sicht. Wolfram Bernhard und Anneliese Kandler, eds. G. Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart, pp. 382-391. Early Neolithic people of Nea Nikomedeia. In: Fundamenta. Die Anfange des Neolithikums vom Orient bis Nordeuropa. Teil VIII a. Anthropologie, 1. Schwidetzky, ed. Bohlau Verlag, Koln, Wien, pp. 103-112. Patterns of fractures from Neolithic to modern times. Anthropologiai Kozlemenyek, Akademiai Kiado, Budapest, 28 (Festschrift for P. Liptak and Janos Nemeskeri): 9-18. 1975 Paleoecology, paleodemography and health. In: Population, Ecology, and Social Evolution, Steven Polgar, ed. (IX International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, Chicago, 1973). Mouton, The Hague, pp. 167-190. Human skeletons from Eleusis. In: LThe South Cemetery of Eleusisl, by G . E. Mylonas. Library of the Archaeological Society of Athens, No. 81, 14 pp. and 4 plates. 1976 Early bronze Karatas people and their cemeteries. In: Excavations in the Elmali area, Lycia, 1975, by M. J. Mellink. Am. J. Archaeol., 80; Appendix, pp. 385-391. Colonial t o modern skeletal change in the U.S.A. Am. J. Phys. Anthrop., 45: 723-735. Introduction to symposium in honor of T. Dale Stewart. Am. J. Phys. Anthrop., 45: 519-530. 1977 Human skeletons lfrom Kephalal. In: Kephala, a Late Neolithic Settlement and Cemetery, by J. E. Coleman. American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Princeton, N.J., Appendix 5, pp. 133-156. (With D. G. Cherry.) Personality reconstruction from unidentified remains. FBI Law Enf. Bull., 46(8); 12-15. Anemias of antiquity: Eastern Mediterranean. Paleopath. Assn. Mon. NO. 2: 1-5.
