Abstract
ANYONE conversant with the needs of those entering upon a course of anthropological study will be aware of the difficulty in finding a satisfactory textbook in physical anthropology. Not that there are no text-books in existence; but they are for the most part too detailed for the beginner and recent advances have made them out-of-date. Dr. Stibbe's “Introduction to Physical Anthropology” meets the need admirably. It deals with its subject matter under the heads zoological, palseonto-logical, and ethnological. In the first we are introduced to the methods and findings of comparative morphology; in the second, the palaeontologist, geologist, and archaeologist are called to the assistance of the anatomist in elucidating the origin, evolution, and antiquity of man; and in the third, racial characters and distribution are considered. Useful instructions for practical work and a glossary of technical terms complete a volume which should fulfil all the requirements of a beginner in anthropological studies, so far as this is possible in a textbook; for one of the most useful features in Dr. Stibbe's book is his insistence on the necessity for handling specimens in a laboratory and for constant practice in measuring the living. The arrangement of the text in the zoological section in which man and the apes are compared in detail will be found most helpful. The author himself would be the first to agree how much his text-book owes to the teaching of Prof. Elliot Smith, and perhaps its greatest merit is the way in which it leads the student inevitably to an intelligent appreciation of Elliot Smith's eminent services to anthropology.
An Introduction to Physical Anthropology.
E. P.
Stibbe
. Pp. vii + 199. (London: Edward Arnold and Co., 1930.) 12s. 6d. net.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
An Introduction to Physical Anthropology . Nature 126, 432 (1930). https://doi.org/10.1038/126432a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/126432a0