Juan Comas

Juan Comas Camps (January 23, 1900 in Alayor, Menorca, Spain – January 18, 1979 in Mexico City, Mexico) was a Spanish-Mexican anthropologist, notable for his critical work on race, and his participation in drafting the UNESCO statement on race. He fled Spain during the regime of Franco, and spend the rest of his life in Mexico. He was professor of physical anthropology at the National Institute of Anthropology and History in Mexico between 1940 and 1943, and at the National Autonomous University from 1955 until his death.

Comas was born in the small town of Alayor, Spain, located in the center of the Menorca Island in the Mediterranean Sea, 150 miles southeast of Barcelona.

During this time, Spain was facing social and political changes that would shape his later work. His father was a teacher in Menorca, and Juan Comas followed in his steps. At the age of seventeen he received degrees in Arts and Sciences and title of elementary teacher. Four years later, Comas received one of the highest degrees for instructors in the Escuaela Superior del Magisterio de Madrid (Rex, 1980). With his academic achievements, Juan Comas taught throughout Spain, before receiving several pedagogical degrees from prestigious universities in the country.

The academic achievements by Comas were not overlooked by the Spanish state. The Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (The High Counsel of Scientific Investigation) of Spain sent him to Geneva to study at the Institute J.J. Rousseau of Geneva, and perform psycho-pedagogical studies. During his time in Geneva, Comas absorbed the teaching of styles from the rest of Europe, and would later bring back with him to Spain.

It was at this institute that Juan Comas began his studies in anthropology. After publishing several articles, and working for the Republicans in Spain, Juan Comas completed his dissertation and defended in 1939. In 1942, under the guidance of Eugène Pittard, Juan Comas received his Doctoral degree in the Anthropological Sciences. Working under Eugène Pittard, Comas received much of his indoctrination into the discipline of anthropology, and more specifically, the subfield of physical anthropology. Pittard was a Swiss anthropologist who had performed numerous investigations and published work in topics covering the evolution and origin of men, as well as the races of men. In an act of great affection to his mentor, Juan Comas translated Pittard’s book, The Races and History, close to thirty years after being published. In 1899 Pittard received his Doctoral of Sciences, by presenting his dissertation titled “Recherche d’anatomie comparative sur diverses séries de crânes anciens de la vallée du Rhône (Valais)” (Comparative Anatomical Research on a diverse series of ancient crania in the Rhone Valley). As Comas did in his later life, Pittard was very involved in political activism. He published articles on the malnutrition of Albanians and the maltreatment of Gypsy populations throughout Europe. It was these times under Pittard that Comas began to develop his ideas that, along with the social atmosphere of the time, would later help him form his personal indigenismo.

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