Sherburne Friend Cook (1896-1974) was an American physiologist, who served as professor and chairman of the department of

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. He was notable as a pioneer in population studies of the native peoples of North America and

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica ...

and in field methods and quantitative analysis in

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsca ...

. Born and raised in Massachusetts, Cook earned his B.S. degree at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

in 1919."Cook, Sherburne F.," in ''Historians of Latin America in the United States, 1965: Biobibliographies of 680 Specialists''. Ed. Howard F. Cline. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1966, 21. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he served in France. He returned to Harvard for graduate studies, earning his M.A. in 1923, and completing his Ph.D. thesis, ''The Toxicity of the Heavy Metals in Relation to Respiration'', in 1925. He taught physiology at University of California, Berkeley from 1928 until his retirement in 1966, becoming a tenured professor and also serving as chairman of the department. Cook repeatedly returned to the problems of estimating the

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...

populations of

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, and other regions, and of tracing the rate and reasons for their subsequent decline. He often arrived at higher figures for pre-contact populations than had previous scholars, and his work has not escaped criticism within this controversial field (e.g.,

W. Michael Mathes William Michael Mathes (April 15, 1936 – August 13, 2012) was an American historian and academic who focused on the histories of Mexico and Spain. Mathes was a leading expert on the history of Baja California. His articles can be found in the '' ...

2005).

Selected publications

* "The Extent and Significance of Disease among the Indians of Baja California". 1935. ''Ibero-Americana'' No. 12. University of California, Berkeley. * "The Population of Central Mexico in the Sixteenth Century"'. 1948. ''Ibero-Americana'' No. 31. University of California, Berkeley. * (with Woodrow Borah) ''Essays in Population History''. 1971–1979. 3 vols. University of California Press, Berkeley. * ''The Conflict between the California Indians and White Civilization''. 1976. University of California Press, Berkeley. (Reprinting six studies originally published in ''Ibero-Americana,'' 1940–1943) * ''The Population of the California Indians, 1769-1970''. 1976. University of California Press, Berkeley.

Honors

* Guggenheim Fellowships awarded in 1938

References

* Brooks, Sheilagh T. 1976. "Tribute to Sherburne Friend , 1896-1974". ''Journal of California Anthropology'' 3:3-12. * Mathes, W. Michael. 2005. "Reflections and Considerations Regarding Baja California Demography Before and During the Mission Period". In ''Archaeology without Limits: Papers in Honor of Clement W. Meighan'', edited by Brian D. Dillon and Matthew A. Boxt, pp. 205–212. Labyrinthos, Lancaster, California.

External links

* *
"Tribute to Sherburne Friend , 1896-1974"
includes "Anthropological Bibliography of Sherburne Friend Cook" excerpted from a more extensive bibliography in the original publication. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cook, Sherburne Friend Historians of Native Americans American ethnologists 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers Historians of Mexico Harvard University alumni University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty 1896 births 1974 deaths American male non-fiction writers Historians from California