Brues, Alice (1913–)

views updated

Brues, Alice (1913–)

American physical anthropologist. Name variations: Alice Mossie Brues. Born Alice Mossie Brues, Oct 9, 1913, in Boston, MA; dau. of Beirne Barrett (amateur field botanist) and Charles Thomas Brues (professor of entomology at Harvard University); sister of Austin M. Brues; Bryn Mawr College, BA, 1933; Radcliffe College, MA, PhD in anthropology, 1940.

Influenced by Ernest Hooton at Radcliffe, served as research associate at Peabody Museum of Harvard (1940–41) and as assistant statistician at Wright Field (1942–44); while serving as assistant professor of anatomy at University of Oklahoma School of Medicine, extended work to population genetics of A-B-O blood group system; published 1st paper in population genetics, "Selection and Polymorphism in the A-B-O Blood Groups" (1954), which became a classic in physical anthropology; served as curator of physical anthropology at Stovall Museum in Norman, Oklahoma (1956–65), chair of anthropology department at University of Colorado at Boulder (1968–71), and vice president (1966–68), then president (1971–73), of American Association of Physical Anthropologists; wrote textbook People and Races (1977), but probably best known for her essay "The Spearman and the Archer" (1959).