Aleš Hrdlička | |
|---|---|
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| Born | (1869-03-30)30 March 1869 |
| Died | 5 September 1943(1943-09-05) (aged 74) Washington, D.C., United States |
| Education | Eclectic Medical CollegeNew York |
| Occupation | Anthropologist |
| Parent(s) | Maxmilian Hrdlička, Karolina Hrdličková |
Alois Ferdinand Hrdlička,[1] after 1918 changed toAleš Hrdlička (Czech pronunciation:[ˈa.lɛʃˈɦr̩d.lɪtʃ.ka]; March 30,[2] 1869 – September 5, 1943), was a Czech-Americananthropologist who lived in the United States after his family had moved there in 1881. He was born inHumpolec,Bohemia (today in theCzech Republic).
Hrdlička was a pioneer in the field of anthropology and the firstcurator of physical anthropology of theSmithsonian Museum from 1904 until 1941. He believed in the theory that migration from Asia to the Americas via theBering Strait was the origin of theAmerican Indians, a migration he said had occurred not more than 3,000 years ago. He initially denied evidence by archaeological findings such as that ofFolsom man in 1927 which pushed thedate of human presence in the Americas back to more than 10,000 years ago.
Hrdlička was born atHumpolec house 393 on 30 March 1869 and baptizedCatholic the next day at theKostel svatého Mikuláše [cz].[3] His mother, Karolína Hrdličková, educated her child herself; his skills and knowledge made it possible to skip the primary level of school. When he was 13, Hrdlička arrived inNew York with his father Maxmilian Hrdlička on 10 September 1881 via theSSElbe fromBremen.[4] His mother and three younger siblingsemigrated to the U.S. separately. After arrival, the promised job brought only a disappointment to his father who started working in acigar factory along with teenaged Alois to earn a living for the family with six other children. Young Hrdlička attended evening courses to improve his English, and at the age of 18, he decided to study medicine since he had suffered fromtuberculosis and experienced the treatment difficulties of those times. In 1889, Hrdlička began studies at Eclectic Medical College and then continued atHomeopathic College in New York. To finish his medical studies, Hrdlička sat for exams inBaltimore in 1894. At first, he worked in theMiddletown asylum for mentally affected where he learnt ofanthropometry. In 1896, Hrdlička left for Paris, where he started to work as an anthropologist with other experts of the then establishing field of science.
Between 1898 and 1903, during his scientific travel across America, Hrdlička became the first scientist to spot and document thetheory of human colonization of the American continent from east Asia, which he claimed was only some 3,000 years ago. He argued that theIndians migrated across theBering Strait from Asia, supporting this theory with detailed field research of skeletal remains as well as studies of the people inMongolia,Tibet,Siberia,Alaska, andAleutian Islands. The findings backed up the argument which later contributed to the theory of global origin of human species that was awarded by theThomas Henry Huxley Award in 1927.
Aleš Hrdlička founded and became the firstcurator of physical anthropology of the U.S. National Museum, now theSmithsonian InstitutionNational Museum of Natural History in 1904 and held that position until 1941.[5] He was elected to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1915 and theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1918.[6][7] That same year, he founded theAmerican Journal of Physical Anthropology.[8] After he stepped down, the journal volume number, which had reached Volume 29 in 1942, was restarted at Volume 1 in 1943.
In January 1913, Hrdlička embarked on an expedition toLima,Peru, during which he removed 80trephined and "otherwise highly interesting" skulls from a grave site in theAndes mountain range. Despite the remains taken from the area, Hrdlička overall disliked the expedition and was disappointed in what he accomplished. The expedition was plagued with constant rain, inconsistent food supply, and treacherous terrain, and Hrdlička directly mentioned his disdain for the local population, claiming that archaeological sites were regularly vandalized, merchants would overcharge him for supplies, and 'ignorant, superstitious, and often drunk people' would provide him with unreliable information. Moreso than any of those factors, Hrdlička was frustrated with his inability to find any 'full-blooded' native people to serve as subjects for his research.[9][10]
Hrdlička was involved in examining a skull to determine that it belonged to Adolph Ruth, who was sensationalized in the press after going missing inArizona in 1931 searching for the legendaryLost Dutchman's Gold Mine.[11]
He always sponsored his fellow expatriates and also donated to the institution of anthropology inPrague, which was founded in 1930 by his co-explorerJindřich Matiegka, in his native country (the institution later took his name). Between 1936 and 1938, Hrdlička led the excavation of over 50mummies from caves onKagamil Island. A small number of the mummies were actually studied, and Hrdlička never recorded any information on the soft tissue of the subjects. This has led to the belief that he may have disposed of the soft tissue without any research due to his focus on skeletal anthropometry.[12]
Hrdlička's views on race are inspired by those ofGeorges Cuvier, who in the 19th century argued that there are "only 3 distinct racial stems: The White, The Black, and The Yellow-Brown." Hrdlička used the "Yellow-Brown" classification as a grouping for non-European and African regions.[13]
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Hrdlička was interested in the origin of human beings. He was a critic ofhominid evolution as well as the Asia hypothesis, as he claimed there was little evidence to go on for those theories. He dismissed finds such as theRamapithecus which were labeled as hominids by most scientists, instead believing that they were nothing more thanfossilapes, unrelated to human ancestry.[14][15][16]
In a lecture on "The Origin of Man", delivered for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, atCincinnati, Ohio, Hrdlička said that the cradle of man is not in Central Asia but in Central Europe, as Europe is the earliest known location where human skeletal remains have been found.
Hrdlička was almost alone in his views. The European hypothesis fell into decline and is now considered anobsolete scientific theory which has been replaced by theMultiregional hypothesis and theOut of Africa hypothesis.[17]
In the early 1900s, Hrdlička became the chief advocate of the scholarly opinion that man had not lived in the Americas for longer than 3,000 years.[18][19] Hrdlička and others made it "virtually taboo" for any anthropologist "desirous of a successful career" to advocate a deep antiquity for inhabitants of the Americas. The findings at theFolsom site inNew Mexico eventually overturned that archaeological orthodoxy.[20]
More recently, Hrdlička's methods have come under scrutiny and criticism with regard to his treatment of Native American remains. An AP newswire article, "Mexico Indian Remains Returned From NY Museum For Burial" from November 17, 2009, recounted his study of Mexico's tribal races, including the beheading of still-decomposing victims of a massacre ofYaqui Indians and removing the flesh from the skulls as part of these studies.[21] He also threw out the corpse of an infant that was found in a cradleboard but forwarded this artifact along with the skulls and other remains to New York'sAmerican Museum of Natural History. While these practices are not inconsistent with other ethnographers and human origin researchers of that era, the moral and ethical ramifications of these research practices continues to be debated today. His work has also been linked to the development of American eugenics laws.[22] In 1926, he was an advisory member of the American Eugenics Society.[23]
On August 6, 1896, Hrdlička marriedGerman-American Marie Stickler (whom he had courted since 1892), daughter of Phillip Jakob Strickler from Edenkoben, Bavaria, who immigrated to Manhattan in 1855.[24] Marie died in 1918 of complications of diabetes. In the summer of 1920 Hrdlička married a second time; his fiancée was another German-American woman, Wilhelmina "Mina" Mansfield. Both marriages were childless.[25]
