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dogmas of religion and philosophy. Although he placed man among animals, he also
noted their distinguishing features such as the relative size of the brain, the biped gait
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and the mental characters. Galen (131–200 A.D) in Rome brought out a series of
monographs on muscles, nerves, foetus formation and so on. Andreas Vesalius (1514 –
1564) studied the different anatomical features of man and apes which created a
revolution in the anatomical studies of those days. His study on human anatomy was
based on direct observation and he was able to bring many new thoughts and ideas. He
laid the foundation of modern anatomy.
Towards the close of the 17th century more studies were done from which Johann
Sperling’s Physical Anthropologia (1668) and Samuel Haworth’s Anthropologia or
Philosophical Discourse Concerning Man (1680) are worth mentioning. Around the
same time Edward Tyson (1650 –1708), a fellow of the Royal Society whose main
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interest was on comparative morphology, conducted the first systematic research on
anatomy. His work Orang-Outang, sive Homo Sylvestris: or, the Anatomy of a Pigmie
Compared with that of a Monkey, an Ape and a Man (1699) is regarded as the first
attempt in the analytical study on the anatomy of anthropoid ape.
The 18th century is marked by outstanding contributions made by Linnaeus, Buffon and
Blumenbach. Swedish Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) in his immortal work Sytema Nature
designated each living organism by two Latin names (binary nomenclature), one for
genus and the other for species. From the days of Linnaeus man has been scientifically
known as Homo sapiens. Buffon (1707–1780), the French contemporary of Linnaeus,
discussed the changes in the organic world in his voluminous work Historic Naturelle.
During the latter part of the 19th century, anthropologists like Broca, Fowler and Turner
followed the path of Blumenbach in the craniological studies. J.C Pritchard (1786 –
1848), in his Researches into the Physical History of Man (1848), contributed some
classified and systematized facts on the races of mankind. Samuel George Morton (1786
– 1848) used anthropometric measurements to study human physical variation. The
year 1859 is highly remarkable in the history of anthropology. With the publication of
Charles Darwin’s book Origin of Species, a revolution started in the line of thinking.
In 1939, forensic anthropology developed as a specific branch of physical anthropology
due to the pioneering contribution made byW.M. Krogman. In 1965, Kerley published a
work on the estimation of age at death in skeleton. This method was then revised and
improved by Atilqvist and Damstern (1975), and Thompson (1979). In 1978, American
Board of Forensic Anthropology was established. The efforts of Sherwood Washburn
towards the reintroduction of field work tradition during the 1950s and 1960s paved the
way for the development of contemporary anthropology.

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