Howells, William W.

Howells, William W. (White) (1908–  ) physical anthropologist; born in New York City. He served the American Museum of Natural History (1932–43), and was a professor at the University of Wisconsin (1939–54) before becoming a curator at the Peabody Museum, Harvard (1955–74). He made major contributions to mathematical anatomic analyses of the human head. His craniometric and historical studies in Oceania (1966–72) resulted in his popular book, The Pacific Islanders (1973). He opposed Carleton Coon and Franz Weidenreich by claiming that contributions of Neanderthal genes to modern humans are virtually negligible.