All Topics  
George W. Gill

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

George W. Gill
 
 
  Topics George W. Gill Topic Home

George W. Gill is an American anthropologist
Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humans and humanity in its totality. Anthropology has origins in the natural sciences, and the humanities. In Great Britain it was originally divided into physical anthropology and cultural anthropology, which itself was divided into archaeology, technology, ethnology and sociology ....
. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Wyoming
University of Wyoming

The University of Wyoming is a land-grant university located in Laramie, Wyoming, Wyoming, situated on Wyoming's high Laramie Plains, at an elevation of 7,200 feet , between the Laramie Mountains and Snowy Range mountains....
 and is "widely recognized as an expert in skeletal biology".

has researched human osteology
Osteology

Osteology is the science of bone. A subdiscipline of anthropology and archeology, osteology is a detailed study of the structure of bones, skeletal elements, teeth, morphology , function, disease, pathology, the process of ossification , the resistance and hardness of bones , etc....
 on the Polynesia
Polynesia

Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising a large grouping of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean....
n island and Chile
Chile

Chile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long and narrow coastal strip wedged between the Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean....
an territory of Easter Island
Easter Island

Easter Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeastern most point of the Polynesian triangle. The island is a special territory of Chile....
, and in 1981 led the National Geographic Society
National Geographic Society

The National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world....
's Easter Island Anthropological Expedition. Materials that he has gathered form part of the osteological collection of Chile's national museum.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'George W. Gill'
Start a new discussion about 'George W. Gill'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


George W. Gill is an American anthropologist
Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humans and humanity in its totality. Anthropology has origins in the natural sciences, and the humanities. In Great Britain it was originally divided into physical anthropology and cultural anthropology, which itself was divided into archaeology, technology, ethnology and sociology ....
. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Wyoming
University of Wyoming

The University of Wyoming is a land-grant university located in Laramie, Wyoming, Wyoming, situated on Wyoming's high Laramie Plains, at an elevation of 7,200 feet , between the Laramie Mountains and Snowy Range mountains....
 and is "widely recognized as an expert in skeletal biology".

Research


Easter Island

Gill has researched human osteology
Osteology

Osteology is the science of bone. A subdiscipline of anthropology and archeology, osteology is a detailed study of the structure of bones, skeletal elements, teeth, morphology , function, disease, pathology, the process of ossification , the resistance and hardness of bones , etc....
 on the Polynesia
Polynesia

Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising a large grouping of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean....
n island and Chile
Chile

Chile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long and narrow coastal strip wedged between the Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean....
an territory of Easter Island
Easter Island

Easter Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeastern most point of the Polynesian triangle. The island is a special territory of Chile....
, and in 1981 led the National Geographic Society
National Geographic Society

The National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world....
's Easter Island Anthropological Expedition. Materials that he has gathered form part of the osteological collection of Chile's national museum. He is collaborating with former students on a book about the island, which will aim to "explain the origins of the people and the decline of their ancient advanced culture".

Kennewick Man

Gill has studied Kennewick Man
Kennewick Man

Kennewick Man is the name for the skeletal remains of a prehistory man found on a stream bed of the Columbia River near Kennewick, Washington, USA on July 28, 1996....
, the skeletal remains of a prehistoric man found near Kennewick
Kennewick, Washington

Kennewick is a city in Benton County, Washington in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Washington, near the Hanford Site. It is the most populous of the three cities collectively referred to as the Tri-Cities, Washington ....
 in the U.S. state of Washington
Washington

Washington is a U.S. state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Washington was carved out of the western part of Washington Territory which had been ceded by Britain in 1846 by the Oregon Treaty as settlement of the Oregon Boundary Dispute....
. Gill was among the scientists who successfully sued the United States in order to gain access to the remains, which had been claimed by the Umatilla
Umatilla (tribe)

The Umatilla are a Sahaptin language-speaking Native American group living on the Umatilla Indian Reservation, who traditionally inhabited the Columbia Plateau region of the northwestern United States....
 and other American Indian
Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the Indigenous peoples of the Americas from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii....
 tribes under a contested interpretation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act , , , is a United States federal law passed on 16 November 1990 requiring federal agencies and institutions that receive federal funding to return Native Americans in the United States cultural items and human remains to their respective peoples....
.

Race

In the late 1980s, partly in response to demands from American forensic anthropology
Forensic anthropology

'Forensic anthropology' is the application of the science of physical anthropology and human osteology in a legal setting, most often in criminal cases where the victim's remains are more or less skeletonized....
 organizations to scrutinize methods of racial identification in order to ensure accuracy in legal cases, Gill tested, supported, and developed craniofacial anthropometric
Craniofacial Anthropometry

Craniofacial anthropometry is a technique used in physical anthropology comprising precise and systematic measurement of the bones of the skull ....
 and other means of estimating the racial origins of skeletal remains. He found that the employment of multiple criteria can yield very high rates of accuracy, and even that individual methods can be accurate more than 80 percent of the time.

Gill cites these findings in arguing against the increasingly popular idea that human races are mere social constructs
Social construction

A social construction or social construct is any phenomenon "invented" or "constructed" by participants in a particular culture or society, existing because people agree to behave as if it exists or follow certain convention rules....
. Gill suggests that "race denial" can stem from overstatements of the importance of clinal
Cline (population genetics)

In biology, a cline is a gradual change of phenotype in a species over a geographical area, often as a result of environmental heterogeneity. This meaning of "cline" was introduced by Sir Julian Huxley....
 variation among human phenotype
Phenotype

A phenotype is any observable characteristic or trait_ of an organism: such as its morphology , development, biochemical or physiological properties, or behavior....
s; from "politically motivated censorship" in the mistaken but "politically correct"
Political correctness

Political correctness is a term applied to language, ideas, policies, or behavior seen as seeking to minimize offense to gender, racial, cultural, disabled, aged or other identity groups....
 belief that "race promotes racism"; and from the fact "that we can often function within systems that we do not believe in", observing a category's fuzzy perimeter while losing sight of our position in its interior.

Gill served on a NOVA
NOVA (TV series)

Nova is a popular science television series from the United States produced by WGBH-TV Boston. It can be seen on the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States, and in more than 100 other countries....
-sponsored panel in which he and five others debated the reality of race. Among Gill's opponents was American anthropologist C. Loring Brace
C. Loring Brace

C. Loring Brace is an anthropology at the University of Michigan. He considers the attempt "to introduce a Darwinian outlook into biological anthropology" to be his greatest contribution to the field of anthropology....
—a fellow plaintiff in the Kennewick Man case—who maintains that the term "race" is not warranted by "a biological entity".