Mutilaciones dentarias: Prehispánicas de México y América en general. Color pictorial wraps. (Garrison-Morton.com 8478)
Publisher Information: Mexico: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, 1958.
Romero, Javier Molina (1910-1986). Mutilaciones dentarias: Prehispánicas de México y América en general. Mexico: Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, 1958. Spanish. [1] 326 [1] pp. + 1 folding plate, color plates, maps, diagrams, tables. (270 x 210 mm). Summaries in Spanish, English, and French. Original color pictorial wrappers. Marked copy: "Daniel Verne" written in black marker at the head of the front wrapper in the right-hand corner. Spine is taped; corners are creased. Good+.
"The life of Javier Romero represents the time in which the study of anthropology in Mexico turned from a personal hobby to a scientific field with solid academic foundations.
"Javier Romero Molina was born in Mexico City on October 14, 1910. After completing his basic studies in the capital, he obtained a bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences from the National Preparatory School in 1927 . The following year, he began his professional studies at the Faculty of Medicine of the National University of Mexico, which he had to interrupt in 1930.
"In 1931 he entered the Department of Physical Anthropology of the National Museum of Anthropology as an assistant to Dr. Rubín de la Borbolla. Thus he began a professional career that had a great impact on the development of physical anthropology in Mexico. Already in 1936 he was appointed head of said Department, a position he held until 1953.
"In the 1930s, the ordering of the osteological material collected by Nicolás León before his death in 1929, its study and that of the new skeletal remains obtained in the archaeological excavations that were carried out were the predominant activity in the Department of Anthropology. It is not surprising, therefore, that Javier Romero's first publications are related to the pre-Hispanic burials found in Cholula, Puebla and in the Plaza del Seminario in the capital. He participated in the archaeological excavations that Alfonso Caso had begun in Monte Albán, Oaxaca, from season III (1933-34) to season XI (1941-42), personally exploring 330 burials and 164 tombs.
"The experiences acquired in the systematic explorations of the archaeological zones, published in 1942, served for decades to regulate the excavation work of young physical anthropologists and archaeologists, as did Romero's other publications on burials and tombs in Oaxaca. These studies were combined with that of the current Mixtec population of Tilantongo (1946), reaching the conclusion that:
"[. . . .] the necessary comparison of the descriptive data of the burials and tombs of Monte Albán and the Mixteca, as well as the quantitative osteometric data of their content, suggest a type of population that did not suffer perceptible physical alterations in Monte Albán through the various established archaeological epochs (Monte Albán IV) and that kept a clear resemblance to the Mixtec population corresponding to epoch V. This supposed biological persistence is supported by somatometric studies of the current indigenous populations of both regions that they again point out, as far as the comparative process has allowed, a frank somatic parallelism.
"However, in the archaeological zone of Monte Negro, which corresponds to the Monte Albán I period in the middle of the Mixteca Alta, some facts have been recorded whose importance seems extraordinary to us: the physical type seems to be different in terms of the height that is greater and as regards the cranial shape, since more or less accentuated dolichoidism was observed, that is, an elongated head shape (1983: 111).
"Professor Romero was also involved in the excavation of some caves such as those of Sierra Azul, Ocampo, Tamaulipas, in 1936, and the cave of San Borjita, Baja California, where cave paintings appeared. [. . . .]
[. . . .] "The interest in and influence exerted on the youth by Professor Romero also finds expression in the many years of teaching physical anthropology between 1939 and 1982 in the current ENAH .. After retiring in 1973, he was appointed director of said School, from 1974 to 1979. This period was one of the most difficult for the School, due to the struggle that existed between various political groups that were fighting to gain control over it. . With his faith in youth, his infinite patience, sanity and understanding, Romero knew how to direct these concerns towards a common purpose, accepted by the majority of teachers and students, consisting of the application of democratic procedures in the development of the new study plans. , in the application of the same and in the government of the School.
"In 1979, he joined the Department of Physical Anthropology , located in the National Museum of Anthropology, where he directed the team that obtained in September of that year the somatometric data, the somatotype, and the standard photograph of 62 men and 8 women of various nationalities. participating in the Universiade in Mexico City. Likewise, he returned to the study, interrupted for 20 years, of the new findings of mutilated teeth and published the fourth part of the corresponding catalogue. He continued in his scientific activities until his death on February 10, 1986."
*This profile was originally published in 1988, with the title: "Javier Romero Molina". In: Anthropology in Mexico. Historical Panorama , 11: 353-371, National Institute of Anthropology and History, Mexico. The version published in One Hundred Years of Physical Anthropology in Mexico is included here. (Mexican Association of Biological Anthropology, amabmex.tripod.com. Accessed 20 Jan 2023.)
Book Id: 50625
Price: $75.00