Biography of Dr. John H. Relethford
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I wrote this short biography
in part to deal with the misconception of many students that I (or many other
professors) had somehow decided at an early age this is what
we wanted to be when we grew up. This was not the case. I didn't even find out about biological anthropology until I
was already in college. When I was a young child I had the usual ideas of
growing up to be an astronaut or dig up dinosaurs, but these were not serious
career goals. In grade school I seldom gave the future
much thought, and spent much more time reading comic books than anything else.
By the time I was a teenager, the comic books had expanded to include science
fiction, but I still didn't give much thought to a career, other than
occasional thoughts about going into electrical engineering (although I would
have much preferred to be a rock star). The point is that many professors (and
probably people in most other professions) wind up where they
are by a very long and convuluted series of events,
few of which were planned. If you, the reader, are an undergraduate
without a definite career goal, don't let it worry
you!
I was born in Bayshore, New York, and was raised in Bellport, New York,
both on the south shore of Long Island. I attended Kreamer
Street Elementary School, Bellport Junior High School, and Bellport Senior High
School. As a child, my interests were comic books, science fiction, dinosaurs,
and electronics. In high school, I was initially interested in becoming an
electrical engineer, but this never materialized. By my senior year, I had
pretty much lost interest in school and did not have a clue as to what to do
with my future.
My senior year photograph (yeah, I know - pretty geeky):
I graduated
high school in 1970 and went to work at several department stores. I soon
became bored and decided to give college a try. I
entered Suffolk County Community College in the fall of 1971 and graduated in
May 1973 with an Associates Degree in Liberal
Studies. By this point, I had found many academic disciplines that interested
me. In fact, my main problem was trying to pick one to major in, when I really
just wanted to take a wide variety of courses. The subjects that most interested
me were mathematics and anthropology. I transferred to SUNY-Albany in the fall
of 1973 as a math major, planning an anthropology
minor. One of my anthropology electives was in "Human Origins and
Prehistory." I was hooked. I soon changed my major to anthropology. Since
I always had a hard time figuring out a major (let alone a possible career), I
found anthropology to be the perfect major. It allowed me the greatest variety
of courses and combined interests in both the natural and social sciences.
My sophomore
year in college:
My senior
year in college:
My college
senior year photograph:
I graduated SUNY-Albany in May
1975, and stayed there to start graduate school in anthropology. During the
first semester of graduate school I realized I was not
at all sure why I was there. Was the field that interesting? Or,
was I simply hanging on because of inertia? I also had some desire to get back
out into the workforce. At the end of the semester, I took a leave of absence
from the graduate program. In the spring of 1976 I
worked part-time as a computer programmer for the anthropology department while
I took additional coursework in computer science. As the money ran out, I
looked for another job. In the summer of 1976 I
started work as an Assistant to the Registrar at Skidmore College and stayed
there during the next fall semester. By this time, I realized that anthropology
was what I
wanted to do, and went back into the graduate program in the spring of 1977. I
finished my Master's degree in the fall 1977 semester, and completed my
doctorate in May of 1980. I felt great pride at having accomplished all of
this. After all, I originally did not know if I even wanted to go to college,
and had many doubts about my capabilities.
My first job was as a
post-doctoral research scientist with the Department of Genetics at the
Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research (now known as the Texas Biomedical
Research Institute) in San Antonio. While there, I worked on a variety of
research problems, ranging from inbreeding in baboon populations to risk
factors for diabetes to analysis of dental growth in baboons. However, I missed
the academic atmosphere and wanted to teach. In the fall of 1981
I came to SUNY-Oneonta to teach in our anthropology department. Except for a
semester as a visiting lecturer at SUNY-Albany and two years working as an
epidemiologist for the New York State Department of Health, I have been here
ever since. I am married, have three sons, and live in
Oneonta.
I have written an
introductory textbook entitled The
Human Species: An Introduction to Biological
Anthropology, which is now in its ninth edition (McGraw-Hill, New York,
2013).
I have also written a
textbook entitled Human
Population Genetics, published by Wiley-Blackwell (2012).
I have also coauthored a
textbook entitled Human
Biological Variation with two friends and colleagues, Jim Mielke of the
Department of Anthropology at the University of Kansas, and Lyle Konigsberg of
the Department of Anthropology at the University of Illinois. This book is now
in its second edition (Oxford University Press, 2011)
My research has primarily
been in the area of human population genetics. This interest began in graduate
school where my dissertation dealt with population genetics and history in
rural western Ireland. A major part of that study was the use of population
genetic models for analyzing complex quantitative traits, such as
anthropometrics (measures of the body, head, and face). During the mid-1980s, I
became interested in historical demography, and initiated a study of population
changes in historical Massachusetts, focusing on a group of communities in
north-central Massachusetts during the 18th and 19th centuries. This research
focused on the effect of population size on patterns of migration and mating
structure as determined from analysis of marriage records. During my stay at
the New York State Health Department from 1989-1991 I analyzed injury mortality
in New York State. After I returned to SUNY-Oneonta in 1991, my interest came
back to studies of Irish population history. At that point, I obtained a
research grant from the National Science Foundation to complete computerization
of anthropometric and demographic data on over 10,000 adult Irish that had
originally been collected during the 1930s. In 1993, my interests shifted
toward the problem of using genetic data to make inferences about modern human
origins. Did modern humans derive exclusively from a recent African origin
within the past 200,000 years, or was there some genetic contribution from
outside of Africa? Much of my early work in this area was summarized in my
book, Genetics and the
Search for Modern Human Origins, published by Wiley-Liss in the spring of 2001.
I have also written a book
intended for a general audience on how genetics can be used to reconstruct
population history. This book, titled Reflections
of Our Past: How Human History is Revealed in Our Genes, was published
by Westview Press in April,
2003. This book was chosen as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2003 by Choice:
Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, and was winner of the 2004 W.W.
Howells Book Award given by the Biological Anthropology Section of the American
Anthropological Association.
In addition to my books, I
have written a number of articles in scientific journals and books, as
indicated on my vita.
Throughout my life I have
been motivated by the desire to do something for a living that was also fun. I
do not want a life where there is a clear division between job and personal
time. My work is also my hobby, and it is difficult for me to separate work
time from fun time, which is exactly the way I want it. The continued
challenges of teaching and research are quite enjoyable, and varied enough so
that I don't get stale.
Me (third from left) with
anthropology graduates in May 2000.
E-Mail: John.Relethford@oneonta.edu