author
Norman E. Gabel
1906–1961
An anthropologist whose published work focused on human variation and field research, he is best remembered for a detailed mid-20th-century study of the people of Fiji. His career was tied closely to the University of California, where he taught and carried out research.
1 Audiobook
A Racial Study of the Fijians
by Norman E. Gabel
About the author
Born in Detroit, Michigan, on November 9, 1906, he studied at the University of Michigan, earning a B.A. in 1928. After graduation he traveled abroad, and those experiences helped shape the wide-ranging interests that later appeared in his anthropological work.
He went on to build his academic career at the University of California. He is associated with research in physical anthropology and archaeology, and his best-known book is A Racial Study of the Fijians (1958), a field-based anthropological survey published by the University of California.
Norman E. Gabel died on January 15, 1961, in Santa Barbara County, California. Read today, his work reflects both the research methods and the academic language of its time, making him a figure of interest in the history of anthropology as well as in the history of scholarly writing about the Pacific.