Richard Jantz
Richard L. Jantz is an American anthropologist. He served as the director of the University of Tennessee Anthropological Research Facility from 1998–2011 and he is the current Professor Emeritus of the Department of Anthropology at the
Among his students was Douglas W. Owsley.
Background
Jantz spent his childhood and received his early education in a small town in central
Research
Some of Jantz’s more current research involves quantitative osteometric and anthropometric variation among Native American populations, including an analysis of the work of Franz Boas.
In the early 1900s, Boas conducted an anthropometric study showing the plasticity of the human body in response to environmental changes. Testing the skeletal measurements of children of immigrants to the US, he found that their measurements were closer to the American mean than to the mean of their home countries. Boas saw this as an argument that nutrition and environment was more important in determining body measurements than racial background, and his study was widely seen as discrediting racial anthropometry.
In 2002, Jantz conducted a reassessment of Boas' study, the first time anyone had examined the validity of Boas’ work. Specimens from Jantz’s research ranged in age from 10,000 years old to the modern period. In his reassessment, Jantz argued that Boas’ original claims about the variations in skeletal plasticity between
Jonathan Marks – a well-known physical anthropologist and former president of the General Anthropology section of the American Anthropological Association – has remarked that this reassessment of Boas's work "has the ring of desperation to it (if not obfuscation), and has been quickly rebutted by more mainstream biological anthropology".[2]
In 2003, anthropologists Clarence C. Gravlee, H. Russell Bernard, and William R. Leonard reanalyzed Boas's data and concluded that most of Boas's original findings were correct. Moreover, they applied new statistical, computer-assisted methods to Boas's data and discovered more evidence for cranial plasticity.[3] In a later publication, Gravlee, Bernard and Leonard reviewed Sparks and Jantz's analysis. They argue that Sparks and Jantz misrepresented Boas's claims, and that Sparks's and Jantz's data actually support Boas.
For example, they point out that Sparks and Jantz look at changes in cranial size in relation to how long an individual has been in the United States in order to test the influence of the environment. Boas, however, looked at changes in cranial size in relation to how long the mother had been in the United States. They argue that Boas's method is more useful, because the prenatal environment is a crucial developmental factor.[4]
His other research also includes looking at microevolutionary forces acting on
Other recent research includes looking at
Jantz has also played a role in the scientific examination and legal challenge associated with the discovery of
Awards
Dr. Jantz was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for his distinguished contributions of database and software development to the field of biological anthropology. He received the Research and Creative Achievement Award from the University of Tennessee in 2003.
Major works
- Ousley, S.D.; Jantz, R.L. (2005). "FORDISC 3.0: Personal Computer Forensic Discriminant Functions". Archived from the original on 13 September 2015. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
- Sparks, C. S.; Jantz, R. L. (2003). "Changing Times, Changing Faces: Franz Boas's Immigrant Study in Modern Perspective". American Anthropologist. 105 (2): 333–337. .
- Jantz, R. L. (2003). "The anthropometric legacy of Franz Boas". Economics & Human Biology. 1 (2): 277–742. PMID 15463979.
- Anne Justice; Rohina Rubicz; Geetha Chittoor; Richard L. Jantz; M. H. Crawford (October–December 2010). "Anthropometric Variation Among Bering Sea Natives". Human Biology. 82 (5–6).
Papers and publications
- Jantz, Richard L. (2018). "Amelia Earhart and the Nikumaroro Bones: A 1941 Analysis versus Modern Quantitative Techniques". Forensic Anthropology. 1 (2): 83–98. . Retrieved 9 February 2018.
- Spradley, M. K.; Jantz, R. L. (2011). "Sex Estimation in Forensic Anthropology: Skull Versus Postcranial Elements". Journal of Forensic Sciences. 56 (2): 289–296. S2CID 37164548.
- Jantz, R. L.; Logan, M. H. (2010). "Why Does head form change in children of immigrants? A reappraisal". American Journal of Human Biology. 22 (5): 702–707. S2CID 12686512.
- Langley-Shirley, N.; Jantz, R. L. (2010). "A Bayesian Approach to Age Estimation in Modern Americans from the Clavicle". Journal of Forensic Sciences. 55 (3): 571–583. S2CID 28527483.
- Ousley, S.; Jantz, R.; Freid, D. (2009). "Understanding race and human variation: Why forensic anthropologists are good at identifying race". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 139 (1): 68–76. PMID 19226647.
- Jantz, R. L.; Kimmerle, E. H.; Baraybar, J. P. (2008). "Sexing and Stature Estimation Criteria for Balkan Populations". Journal of Forensic Sciences. 53 (3): 601–605. S2CID 36107380.
- Jantz, Richard L. (2006). "Anthropometry". In Douglas H. Ubelaker (ed.). Handbook of North American Indians. Vol. 3. Environment, Origins and Population. Smithsonian Institution. pp. 777–788.
- Durband, A. C.; Kidder, J. H.; Jantz, R. L. (2005). "A multivariate examination of the Hexian calvaria". Anthropological Science. 113 (2): 147–154. .
- Jantz, R. L. (2001). "Cranial change in Americans: 1850-1975". Journal of Forensic Sciences. 46 (4): 784–787. PMID 11451056.
- Jantz, R.L.; Owsley, Douglas W. (2001). "Variation among early North American Crania". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 114 (2): 146–55. PMID 11169904.
- Owsley, Douglas W.; Jantz, Richard L. (2001). "Archaeological Politics and Public Interest in Paleoamerican Studies: Lessons from Gordon Creek Woman and Kennewick Man". American Antiquity. 66 (4): 565–575. S2CID 5551431.
- Jantz, R.L.; Meadows Jantz, Lee (2000). "Secular change in craniofacial morphology". American Journal of Human Biology. 12 (3): 327–338. S2CID 22059721.
- Jantz, Richard L.; Owsley, Douglas W. (1999). "Databases for Paleo-American skeletal biology research". In Bonnichsen, Robson (ed.). Who were the first Americans: Proceedings of the 58th Annual Biology Colloquium. Center for the Study of the First Americans, Oregon State University. pp. 79–96. ISBN 9780912933207.
- Wescott, D. J.; Jantz, R. L. (1999). "Anthropometric variation among the Sioux and the Assiniboine". Human Biology. 71 (5): 847–858. PMID 10510574.
- Burns, Karen Ramey; Jantz, Richard L.; King, Thomas F.; Gillespie, Richard E. (5 December 1998). "Amelia Earhart's Bones and Shoes? Current Anthropological Perspectives on an Historical Mystery" (PDF). TIGHAR. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
- Jantz, R. L.; Brehme, H. (1993). "Directional and fluctuating asymmetry in the palmar interdigital ridge-counts". Anthropologischer Anzeiger. 51 (1): 59–67. PMID 8476275.
- Jantz, R. L.; Hunt, D. R.; Falsetti, A. B.; Key, P. J. (1992). "Variation among North Amerindians: Analysis of Boas's anthropometric data". Human Biology. 64 (3): 435–461. PMID 1607187.
- Brehme, H.; Jantz, R. L.; Hauser, G.; Okajima, M.; Eriksson, A. W.; Hitzeroth, H. W.; Wojciechowska, H.; Mullis, M. -L. (1990). "Palm and sole interdigital ridge-count correlations". Zeitschrift für Morphologie und Anthropologie. 78 (2): 243–256. PMID 2077775.
- Key, P. J.; Jantz, R. L. (1990). "Statistical assessment of population variability: A methodological approach". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 82 (1): 53–59. PMID 2349971.
- Owsley, D. W.; Jantz, R. L. (1985). "Long bone lengths and gestational age distributions of post-contact period Arikara Indian perinatal infant skeletons". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 68 (3): 321–328. PMID 3904476.
- Jantz, R. L.; Chopra, V. P. (1983). "A comparison of dermatoglyphic methodologies in population studies". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 60 (1): 61–67. PMID 6869503.
- Jantz, Richard L.; Brehme, Hugo (1982). "On the epidermal pattern system of seven families with triplets of various zygosity patterns". Mittheilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien. 112: 1–15.
- Jantz, R. L.; V, D. W.; Willey, P. (1981). "Craniometric Variation in the Northern and Central Plains". Plains Anthropologist. 26 (94): 19–29. JSTOR 25667733.
- Schwidetzky, I.; Jantz, R. L. (1979). "Race differences in the sex dimorphism of dermatoglyphic traits". Journal of Human Evolution. 8 (8): 773–776. .
- Jantz, R. L. (1974). "The Redbird Focus: Cranial Evidence in Tribal Identification". Plains Anthropologist. 19 (63): 5–13. JSTOR 25667179.
- Bass, William M.; Evans, David R.; Jantz, Richard L. (1971). The Leavenworth Site Cemetery: Archaeology and Physical Anthropology. University of Kansas.
- Jantz, R. L.; Johnston, F. E.; Kensinger, K. M.; Walker, G. F. (1970). "Palmar Dermatoglyphics of the Peruvian Cashinahua". Human Heredity. 20 (6): 642–649. PMID 5514304.
References
- ^ PMID 12374854.
- ISBN 0-520-24064-2 p. xviii [1]
- hdl:2027.42/65137
- hdl:2027.42/65980, archived from the original(PDF) on 2015-04-02, retrieved 2013-03-26
- ^ Forensic Anthropology Vol. 1, No. 2: 1–16
External links
- "Written in Bone - Research Collections". http://anthropology.si.edu. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. 2012. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
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- "Forensic Anthropology Center". http://web.utk.edu. University of Tennessee Knoxville. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
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- "Human Osteometric and Anthropometric Variation". Retrieved 25 May 2012.
- Lawrence, D. M.; Kemp, B. M.; Eshleman, J.; Jantz, R. L.; Snow, M.; George, D.; Smith, D. G. (2010). "Mitochondrial DNA of Protohistoric Remains of an Arikara Population from South Dakota: Implications for the Macro-Siouan Language Hypothesis". Human Biology. 82 (2): 157–178. S2CID 20407588.
- "Dr. Richard Jantz". Retrieved 25 May 2012.
- Fergus, Charles (2003). "Boas, Bones, and Race". Research Penn State. 24 (2). Retrieved 25 May 2012.
- Brian Handwerk (19 September 2002). "Civil War Submariner's Teeth Tell Much About The Men". National Geographic News. National Geographic. Archived from the original on September 21, 2002. Retrieved 25 May 2012.