Editing Carleton S. Coon (section)

==Reception and legacy==
Coon's published magnum opus, ''The Origin of Races'' (1962), received mixed reactions from scientists of the era. [[Ernst Mayr]] praised the work for its synthesis as having an "invigorating freshness that will reinforce the current revitalization of physical anthropology".<ref>"Origin of the Human Races", Ernst Mayr, ''Science'', New Series, Vol. 138, No. 3538, (October 19, 1962), pp. 420–422.</ref> A book review by [[Stanley Marion Garn]] criticised Coon's parallel view of the origin of the races with little gene flow but praised the work for its racial taxonomy and concluded: "an overall favorable report on the now famous Origin of Races".<ref>The Origin of Races. by Carleton S. Coon, Review by: Stanley M. Garn, ''American Sociological Review'', Vol. 28, No. 4 (Aug. 1963), pp. 637–638/</ref> [[Sherwood Washburn]] and [[Ashley Montagu]] were heavily influenced by the [[Extended evolutionary synthesis|modern synthesis]] in biology and [[population genetics]]. In addition, they were influenced by [[Franz Boas]], who had moved away from typological racial thinking. Rather than supporting Coon's theories, they and other contemporary researchers viewed the human species as a continuous serial progression of populations and heavily criticized Coon's ''Origin of Races''.

In a New York Times' obituary he was hailed for "important contributions to most of the major subdivisions of modern anthropology", "pioneering contributions to the study of human transition from the hunter-gatherer culture to the first agricultural communities." and "important early work in studying the physical adaptations of humans in such extreme environments as deserts, the Arctic and high altitudes."<ref name="Schmeck" /> [[William W. Howells]], writing in a 1989 article, noted that Coon's research was "still regarded as a valuable source of data".<ref>W. W. Howells. "Biographical Memoirs V.58". National Academy of Sciences, 1989.[http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=030903938X&page=108]</ref> In 2001, [[John P. Jackson, Jr.]] researched Coon's papers to review the controversy around the reception of ''The Origin of Races'', stating in the article abstract:

{{blockquote|Segregationists in the United States used Coon's work as proof that African Americans were "junior" to white Americans, and thus unfit for full participation in American society. The paper examines the interactions among Coon, segregationist [[Carleton Putnam]], geneticist [[Theodosius Dobzhansky]], and anthropologist [[Sherwood Washburn]]. The paper concludes that Coon actively aided the segregationist cause in violation of his own standards for scientific objectivity.{{Sfn|Jackson|2001}}
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Jackson found in the archived Coon papers records of repeated efforts by Coon to aid Putnam's efforts to provide intellectual support to the ongoing resistance to racial integration, but cautioned Putnam against statements that could identify Coon as an active ally (Jackson also noted that both men had become aware that they had General [[Israel Putnam]] as a common ancestor, making them (at least distant) cousins, but Jackson indicated neither when either learned of the family relationship nor whether they had a more recent common ancestor).{{Sfn|Jackson|2001}} [[Alan H. Goodman]] (2000) has said that Coon's main legacy was not his "separate evolution of races (Coon 1962)," but his "molding of race into the new physical anthropology of adaptive and evolutionary processes (Coon et al. 1950)," since he attempted to "unify a typological model of human variation with an evolutionary perspective and explained racial differences with adaptivist arguments."{{Sfn|Goodman|Hammonds|2000}}{{Missing page|date=November 2020}}