Robert Corruccini
Encyclopedia
Robert Spencer Corruccini (born May 21, 1949) is an American
anthropologist, distinguished professor, Smithsonian Institution
Research Fellow, Human Biology Council Fellow (now the Human Biology Association), and the 1994 Outstanding Scholar at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. As a medical
and dental anthropologist, Corruccini is most noted for his work on the theory of malocclusion
and his extensive work in a slave cemetery at Newton Plantation in Barbados
.
in Anthropology
and Geology
at the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1971, and his Ph.D.
in Anthropology
and Paleontology
from the University of California, Berkeley
in 1975. He was named an Aleš Hrdlička
Scholar in 1975-1976 by the Smithsonian Institute, later becoming a communications coordinator for the Universities Space Research Association
in Boulder, Colorado
.
In 1977, Corruccini returned to his alma mater
, teaching anthropology
at the University of Colorado, Boulder. In 1978, he joined the Anthropology Department at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale as a tenure-track assistant professor, later earning a full professorship in 1986. It was at this university where Corruccini met, and later married, archaeologist Carol A. Morrow. Morrow is now professor of anthropology at Southeast Missouri State University
.
, though his research is not limited to any particular aspect of human or non-human primate
dentition
or biology
. Much of his early fieldwork in dentition and many of his 250-plus publications focused on twins
, immigrants, Australian Aborigines
, and on the Indian subcontinent
, with this research being funded by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation
, the Smithsonian Institution
, and the Leakey Foundation. However, Corruccini's research into malocclusion
led him to conduct broad and comprehensive studies among a diverse number of subjects, including an isolate population of European-Americans in rural Kentucky
, the Pima
Tribe, natives of Peru
, hominoids, and modern Chinese
.
led him to the conclusion that not all cases could be solely attributed to genetic factors. In 1982, Corruccini and Beecher published the results of a study on squirrel monkeys that revealed that diet may play a significant role in occlusal health. Corruccini later asserted that the consumption of a western diet, or "Industrial Diet" may be one of the factors responsible for the swelling epidemic of malocclusions now appearing in modern human populations in western countries. Subsequent studies conducted by other scientists confirm the rise of malocclusions in modern humans.
In his review of Noel T. Boaz's, Evolving Health: The Origins of Illness and How the Modern World is Making Us Sick, Corruccini states,
circa 1660-1820, a collaboration that would span over a decade and result in numerous publications. Handler joined the faculty at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale in 1962, first as an instructor, and later as a tenured professor after he earned his PhD in anthropology from Brandeis University
in 1965. Corruccini and Handler's first publication together on the Newton sugar plantation was based on a study of the slaves' dentition. This and subsequent research was funded by associations such as the National Science Foundation
, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Southern Illinois University Office of Development and Research, and the National Geographic Society
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
anthropologist, distinguished professor, Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
Research Fellow, Human Biology Council Fellow (now the Human Biology Association), and the 1994 Outstanding Scholar at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. As a medical
Medical anthropology
Medical anthropology is an interdisciplinary field which studies "human health and disease, health care systems, and biocultural adaptation". It views humans from multidimensional and ecological perspectives...
and dental anthropologist, Corruccini is most noted for his work on the theory of malocclusion
Malocclusion
A malocclusion is a misalignment of teeth or incorrect relation between the teeth of the two dental arches. The term was coined by Edward Angle, the "father of modern orthodontics", as a derivative of occlusion, which refers to the manner in which opposing teeth meet.-Presentation:Most people have...
and his extensive work in a slave cemetery at Newton Plantation in Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
.
Academic Life
Corruccini earned his B.A.Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in Anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
and Geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
at the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1971, and his Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in Anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
and Paleontology
Paleontology
Paleontology "old, ancient", ὄν, ὀντ- "being, creature", and λόγος "speech, thought") is the study of prehistoric life. It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments...
from the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
in 1975. He was named an Aleš Hrdlička
Aleš Hrdlicka
Aleš Hrdlička or Ales Hrdlicka was a Czech anthropologist who lived in the United States after his family had moved there in 1881...
Scholar in 1975-1976 by the Smithsonian Institute, later becoming a communications coordinator for the Universities Space Research Association
Universities Space Research Association
The Universities Space Research Association was incorporated on March 12, 1969 in the District of Columbia as a private, nonprofit corporation under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences . Institutional membership in the Association has grown from 49 colleges and universities when it was...
in Boulder, Colorado
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...
.
In 1977, Corruccini returned to his alma mater
Alma mater
Alma mater , pronounced ), was used in ancient Rome as a title for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele, and in Christianity for the Virgin Mary.-General term:...
, teaching anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
at the University of Colorado, Boulder. In 1978, he joined the Anthropology Department at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale as a tenure-track assistant professor, later earning a full professorship in 1986. It was at this university where Corruccini met, and later married, archaeologist Carol A. Morrow. Morrow is now professor of anthropology at Southeast Missouri State University
Southeast Missouri State University
Southeast Missouri State University, is a public, accredited university located in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, United States, near the banks of the Mississippi River. The institution, having started as a normal school, has a traditional strength in teacher education...
.
Human Dentition
As a dental anthropologist, Corruccini is most noted for his work on malocclusionMalocclusion
A malocclusion is a misalignment of teeth or incorrect relation between the teeth of the two dental arches. The term was coined by Edward Angle, the "father of modern orthodontics", as a derivative of occlusion, which refers to the manner in which opposing teeth meet.-Presentation:Most people have...
, though his research is not limited to any particular aspect of human or non-human primate
Primate
A primate is a mammal of the order Primates , which contains prosimians and simians. Primates arose from ancestors that lived in the trees of tropical forests; many primate characteristics represent adaptations to life in this challenging three-dimensional environment...
dentition
Dentition
Dentition pertains to the development of teeth and their arrangement in the mouth. In particular, the characteristic arrangement, kind, and number of teeth in a given species at a given age...
or biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
. Much of his early fieldwork in dentition and many of his 250-plus publications focused on twins
TWINS
Two Wide-Angle Imaging Neutral-Atom Spectrometers are a pair of NASA instruments aboard two United States National Reconnaissance Office satellites in Molniya orbits. TWINS was designed to provide stereo images of the Earth's ring current. The first instrument, TWINS-1, was launched aboard USA-184...
, immigrants, Australian Aborigines
Australian Aborigines
Australian Aborigines , also called Aboriginal Australians, from the latin ab originem , are people who are indigenous to most of the Australian continentthat is, to mainland Australia and the island of Tasmania...
, and on the Indian subcontinent
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
, with this research being funded by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation
Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation
The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation was established by Harry Guggenheim to support research on violence, aggression, and dominance.The foundation writes: "He was convinced that solid, thoughtful, scholarly and scientific research, experimentation, and analysis would in the end accomplish more...
, the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
, and the Leakey Foundation. However, Corruccini's research into malocclusion
Malocclusion
A malocclusion is a misalignment of teeth or incorrect relation between the teeth of the two dental arches. The term was coined by Edward Angle, the "father of modern orthodontics", as a derivative of occlusion, which refers to the manner in which opposing teeth meet.-Presentation:Most people have...
led him to conduct broad and comprehensive studies among a diverse number of subjects, including an isolate population of European-Americans in rural Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
, the Pima
Pima
The Pima are a group of American Indians living in an area consisting of what is now central and southern Arizona. The long name, "Akimel O'odham", means "river people". They are closely related to the Tohono O'odham and the Hia C-ed O'odham...
Tribe, natives of Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, hominoids, and modern Chinese
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
.
Theory of malocclusion
Corruccini's long term research into the origins of malocclusionMalocclusion
A malocclusion is a misalignment of teeth or incorrect relation between the teeth of the two dental arches. The term was coined by Edward Angle, the "father of modern orthodontics", as a derivative of occlusion, which refers to the manner in which opposing teeth meet.-Presentation:Most people have...
led him to the conclusion that not all cases could be solely attributed to genetic factors. In 1982, Corruccini and Beecher published the results of a study on squirrel monkeys that revealed that diet may play a significant role in occlusal health. Corruccini later asserted that the consumption of a western diet, or "Industrial Diet" may be one of the factors responsible for the swelling epidemic of malocclusions now appearing in modern human populations in western countries. Subsequent studies conducted by other scientists confirm the rise of malocclusions in modern humans.
In his review of Noel T. Boaz's, Evolving Health: The Origins of Illness and How the Modern World is Making Us Sick, Corruccini states,
Research at Newton Plantation
Not long after Corruccini's arrival in Carbondale, he commenced a collaborative research study with Jerome Handler focusing on slave populations who were buried in BarbadosBarbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
circa 1660-1820, a collaboration that would span over a decade and result in numerous publications. Handler joined the faculty at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale in 1962, first as an instructor, and later as a tenured professor after he earned his PhD in anthropology from Brandeis University
Brandeis University
Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...
in 1965. Corruccini and Handler's first publication together on the Newton sugar plantation was based on a study of the slaves' dentition. This and subsequent research was funded by associations such as the National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Southern Illinois University Office of Development and Research, and the National Geographic Society
National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. Its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical...
.
Books
- R.S. Corruccini. Primate Behavior and Sociobiology: Selected Papers from the VIII International Congress of Primatology, (co-edited with A.B. Chiarelli), Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 1981.
- R.S. Corruccini. Primate Evolutionary Biology: Selected Papers from the VIII International Congress of Primatology, (co-edited with A.B. Chiarelli), Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 1981.
- R.S. Corruccini. Advanced Views on Primate Biology: Proceedings of the Main Session, VIII International Congress of Primatology, Florence, July 7–11, 1980, (co-edited by A.B. Chiarelli), Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 1982.
- R.S. Corruccini. New Interpretations of Ape and Human Ancestry, (co-edited with R.L. Ciochon), New York: Plenum Press, 1983, ISBN 0306410729
- R.S. Corruccini. HALLA: Demographic Consequences of the Partition of the Punjab, 1947 (Corruccini and S.S. Kaul), Lanham: University Press of America, 1990, ISBN 0819178497
- R.S. Corruccini. Integrative Paths to the Past: Paleoanthropological Advances in Honor of F. Clark Howell, (co-edited with R.L. Ciochon), New York: Prentice-Hall, 1994,ISBN 0137067739
- R.S. Corruccini. Multivariate Analysis in Bioanthropology, (co-edited with G.N. van Vark and W. Schaafsma), Journal of Quantitative Anthropology, Volume 5 Number 3, July 1995, 83 pp.
- R.S. Corruccini. How Anthropology Informs the Orthodontic Diagnosis of Malocclusion’s Causes, Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 1999, ISBN 0773479805
- R.S. Corruccini. The Human Experience: A Recitation Manual for Anthropology, (with A. Balkansky and M. Harrison), Dubuque: Kendall-Hunt, 2007, ISBN 9780757566523
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- R.S. Corruccini. 1972a. The Biological Relationships of Some Prehistoric and Historic Pueblo Populations. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 37:373-388.
- R.S. Corruccini. 1972b. Allometry Correction in Taximetrics. Systematic Zoology 21:375-383.
- R.S. Corruccini. 1973. Size and Shape in Similarity oefficients Based on Metric Characters. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 38:743-753.
- R.S. Corruccini. 1974a. An Examination of the Meaning of Cranial Discrete Traits for Human Skeletal Biological Studies. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 40: 425-445.
- R.S. Corruccini. 1974b. The Relation Between Ponderal Index and Discrete Traits and Measurements of the Skull. Human Biology 46:219-231.
- R.S. Corruccini. 1974c. Calvarial Shape Relationships between Fossil Hominids. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 18:89-109.
- R.S. Corruccini. 1975a. Metrical Analysis of Fontechevade II. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 42:95-97.
- R.S. Corruccini. 1975b. Multivariate Analysis of Gigantopithecus Mandibles. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 42:167-170.
- R.S. Corruccini. 1975c. Multivariate Analysis in Biological Anthropology: Some Considerations. Journal of Human Evolution 4:1-19.
- H.M. McHenry, R.S. Corruccini. 1975d. Distal Humerus in Hominoid Evolution. Folia Primatologica 23:227-244.
- R.L. Ciochon, R.S. Corruccini. 1975e. Morphometric Analysis of Platyrrhine Femora with Taxonomic Implications and Notes on Two Fossil Forms. Journal of Human Evolution 4:193-217.
- H.M. McHenry, R.S. Corruccini. 1975f. Multivariate Analysis of Early Hominid Pelvic Bones. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 43:263-270.