John Relethford

Education:
PhD State University of New York, Albany, 1980

About:
Distinguished Teaching Professor of Anthropology, SUNY College at Oneonta. Adjunct Professor, Binghamton University. Human population genetics, human biological variation, modern human origins, statistical methods. (Not in Residence)

Contact:
relethjh@oneonta.edu

Research Interests:
My primary research interests are in anthropological genetics, particularly the use of genetic/phenotypic data in reconstructing population history. Much of my work falls into four areas: 1) the use of genetic/phenotypic data for reconstructing historical and geographic influences on global patterns of human variation; 2) the use of genetic data and models for studies of the origin of modern humans over the past 150,000 years; 3) the use of phenotypic data in reconstructing the population history of Ireland; and 4) the development of models and methods in human population genetics.

Selected Bibliography:

(Books over the past five years)

Relethford JH (2001) Genetics and the Search for Modern Human Origins. New York: Wiley Liss.

Relethford JH (2003) The Human Species: An Introduction to Biological Anthropology, 5th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill. Greek translation published, 2005.

Relethford JH (2003) Reflections of Our Past: How Human History is Revealed in Our Genes. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. Paperback edition released 2004. Korean translation published by Human & Books, 2003.

Mielke JH, Konigsberg LW, and Relethford JH (2005) Human Biological Variation. New York: Oxford University Press (in press).

Relethford JH (2005) The Human Species: An Introduction to Biological Anthropology. 6th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill.

(Peer-reviewed journal articles over the past five years)

Relethford JH (2001) Absence of regional affinities of Neandertal DNA with living humans does not reject multiregional evolution. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 115:95–98.

Relethford JH (2001) Global analysis of regional differences in craniometric diversity and population substructure. Human Biology 73:629–636.

Relethford JH (2002) Apportionment of global human genetic diversity based on craniometrics and skin color. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 118:393–398.

Madrigal L, Relethford JH and Crawford MH (2003) Heritability and anthropometric influences on human fertility: A path analysis. American Journal of Human Biology 15:16–22.

Eller E, Hawks J and Relethford JH (2004) Local extinction and recolonization, species effective population size, and modern human origins. Human Biology 76:689–709.

Relethford JH (2004) Boas and beyond: Migration and craniometric variation. American Journal of Human Biology 16:379–386.

Relethford JH (2004) Global patterns of isolation by distance based on genetic and morphological data. Human Biology 76:499–513.

Walker RB, Morey DF, Relethford JH (2005) Early and Mid-Holocene dogs in southeastern North America: Examples from Dust Cave. Southeastern Archaeology (in press).

(Book chapters over the past five years)

Harding RM and Relethford JH (2001) Human populations: Origins and evolution. In: Nature Encyclopedia of Life Sciences. London: Nature Publishing Group. http://www.els.net/ [doi:10.1038/npg.els.0001794].

Relethford JH (2001) Genetic history of the human species. In: Handbook of Statistical Genetics. D Balding, M Bishop, and C Cannings, eds. Chichester, England: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 813–846.

Relethford JH and Harding RM (2001) Population genetics of modern human evolution. In: Nature Encyclopedia of Life Sciences. London: Nature Publishing Group. http://www.els.net/ [doi:10.1038/npg.els.0001470].

Thompson MW, Denniston C, Vogel F, Relethford JH, Nyhan WL, Povey S (2002) Human genetics. McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, 9th edition. NY: McGraw-Hill. AccessScience@McGraw-Hill, http://www.accessscience.com, DOI 10.1036/1097?8542.324600, last modified: June 6, 2002. Relethford wrote the section on “Population genetics.”

Leigh SR, Relethford JH, Park PB, Konigsberg LW (2003) Morphological differentiation of Gorilla subspecies. In: Gorilla Biology: A Multidisciplinary Perspective. AB Taylor and ML Goldsmith, eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 104–131.

Relethford JH (2003) Anthropometric data and population history. In: Human Biologists in the Archives: Demography, Health, Nutrition, and Genetics in Historical Populations. A Herring and AC Swedlund, eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 32–52.

Relethford JH (2003) Genetic history of the human species. In: Handbook of Statistical Genetics, 2nd edition. D Balding, M Bishop, and C Cannings, eds. Chichester, England: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 793–829. This is an updated version of number 10 above.

Relethford JH (2004) Modern human origins: The “Out of Africa” debate. In: Nature Encyclopedia of Life Sciences (http://www.els.net). London: Nature Publishing Group.

(Book reviews over the past five years)

(2001) Review of Genes, Peoples and Languages, by LL Cavalli-Sforza. Heredity 87:126–127.

(2001) Review of Hormonal Chaos: The Scientific and Social Origins of the Environmental Endocrine Hypothesis, by S Krimsky. Human Biology 73:321–323.

(2001) Review of Migration and Colonization in Human Microevolution, by AG Fix. American Journal of Human Biology 13:280–281.

(2002) Review of The Molecule Hunt: Archaeology and the Search for Ancient DNA, by M Jones. Nature Genetics 32:95.

(2003) Review of A Brain for All Seasons: Human Evolution & Abrupt Climate Change, by WH Calvin. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 121:389–390.

(2003) Review of Explaining Human Origins: Myth, Imagination, and Conjecture, by W Stoczkowski. The Quarterly Review of Biology 78:260–261.

(2004) Review of The Delphic Boat: What Genomes Tell Us, by A. Danchin. Human Biology 76:492–493.

(2004) Review of Human Biology of Pastoral Populations, ed. by WR Leonard and MH Crawford. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 124:382–383.

(2004) Review of Human Evolutionary Genetics: Origins, Peoples & Disease by MA Jobling, M Hurles and C Tyler-Smith. Human Genomics 1:317–318.

(2005) Review of When Biology and Culture Collide: Why we are Stressed, Depressed, and Self-Obsessed, by E.O. Smith. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 126:229–230.

(IMPORTANT PUBLICATIONS BEFORE THE PAST FIVE YEARS)

Relethford JH (1980) Bioassay of kinship from continuous traits. Human Biology 52:689–700.

Relethford JH, Lees FC and Crawford MH (1981) Population structure and anthropometric variation in rural western Ireland: Isolation by distance and analysis of the residuals. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 55:233–245.

Relethford JH and Lees FC (1982) The use of quantitative traits in the study of human population structure. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 25:113–132.

Relethford JH (1988) Effects of English admixture and geographic distance on anthropometric variation and genetic structure in 19th century Ireland. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 76:111–124.

Relethford JH and Blangero J (1990) Detection of differential gene flow from patterns of quantitative variation. Human Biology 62:5–25.

Relethford JH (1991) Effect of changes in population size on genetic microdifferentiation. Human Biology 63:629–641.

Relethford JH (1991) Genetic drift and anthropometric variation in Ireland. Human Biology 63: 155–165.

Relethford JH (1992) Cross-cultural analysis of migration rates: Effects of geographic distance and population size. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 89:459–466.

Relethford JH (1994) Craniometric variation among modern human populations. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 95:53–62.

Relethford JH and Harpending HC (1994) Craniometric variation, genetic theory, and modern human origins. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 95:249–270.

Relethford JH (1995) Genetics and modern human origins. Evolutionary Anthropology 4:53–63.

Relethford JH and Crawford MH (1995) Anthropometric variation and the population history of Ireland. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 96:25–38.

Relethford JH and Harpending HC (1995) Ancient differences in population size can mimic a recent African origin of modern humans. Current Anthropology 36:667–674.

Relethford JH (1996) Genetic drift can obscure population history: Problem and solution. Human Biology 68:29–44.

Relethford JH, Crawford MH and Blangero J (1997) Genetic drift and gene flow in post-Famine Ireland. Human Biology 69:443–465.

Relethford JH (1998) Genetics of human origins and diversity. Annual Review of Anthropology 27: 1–23.

Relethford JH (1999) Models, predictions, and the fossil record of modern human origins. Evolutionary Anthropology 8:7–10.

Relethford JH and Jorde LB (1999) Genetic evidence for larger African population size during recent human evolution. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 108:251–260.