Norman E. Gabel

Born in 1906 and died in 1961, Norman E. Gabel is known today for A Racial Study of the Fijians, published in 1958 as part of the University of California's Anthropological Records series.

In that study, he described a seven-month stay in Fiji and used anthropometric methods to survey the native male population, comparing regional groups and neighboring peoples. The book reflects the academic language and racial frameworks common in anthropology at the time.

Reliable biographical details about his personal life, career, and training are scarce in the sources I could confirm, so much of his life remains obscure. For modern readers, his work is best approached as a period piece that shows how anthropology once studied human difference, rather than as a guide to current scholarship.