Robert Bennett Bean (March 24, 1874 in Gala, Virginia[1] –1944) was an associate professor of anatomy and ethnologist adept to craniometry and the concept of "race", whose scientific work was discredited by his mentor but who nonetheless became a professor at the University of Virginia and remained so until his death.[2]
Life and career
editBean, through his mother, was descended from the First Families of Virginia, including colonist and land owner William Randolph. He studied medicine and anatomy and obtained a B.S. in medicine, followed by an M.D. in anatomy in 1904.
Career
editBean became a professor of anatomy at numerous universities, including the University of Michigan (1905–1907), the Philippine Medical School of Manila (1908) and the Tulane University of Louisiana (1910–1916). In 1916 he accepted a position as an associate professor at the University of Virginia and remained so until his death. He became the councilor of the American Anthropological Association in 1919 and was also a regional chairman for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1926). He is buried at the University of Virginia cemetery.[3]
Works
editHe is best remembered for his ethnological work The Races of Man (1932).[4]
Books
edit- Racial Anatomy of the Philippine Islanders (1910)
- The Races of Man. Differentiation and Dispersal of Man (1932, 2nd Ed. 1935)
- The Peopling of Virginia (1938)
References
edit- ^ BEAN, Robert Bennett; in Who's Who in America (1926 edition); p. 245; via archive.org
- ^ Brent Tarter, The Grandees of Government: the Origins and Persistence of Undemocratic Politics in Virginia (Charlottesville, University of Virginia Press, 2013) p. 319 citing Stephen Jay Gould, The Mismeasure of Man (New York 1981) pp. 77-82
- ^ "Dr Robert Bennett Bean (1874 - 1944) - Find A Grave Memorial". www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 2017-04-07.
- ^ "Robert Bennett Bean", 1874-1944, R. J. Terry, American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 48, No. 1, Jan. - Mar., 1946, pp. 70-74.