Robert Spencer Corruccini (born May 21, 1949) is an American anthropologist,

distinguished professor Distinguished Professor is an academic title given to some top tenured professors in a university, school, or department. Some distinguished professors may have endowed chairs. In the United States Often specific to one institution, titles such ...

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

Research Fellow, Human Biology Council Fellow (now the Human Biology Association), and the 1994 Outstanding Scholar at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. As a

medical Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practic ...

and dental anthropologist, Corruccini is most noted for his work on the theory of

malocclusion In orthodontics, a malocclusion is a misalignment or incorrect relation between the teeth of the upper and lower dental arches when they approach each other as the jaws close. The English-language term dates from 1864; Edward Angle (1855-19 ...

R.S. Corruccini. 1984. An Epidemiologic Transition in Dental Occlusion in World Populations. ''American Journal of Orthodontics'' 86 (5): 419-426. and his extensive work in a slave cemetery at Newton Plantation in

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate) ...

. J.S. Handler and R.S. Corruccini. 1986
Weaning among West Indian Slaves: Historical and Bioanthropological Evidence from Barbados.
''William and Mary Quarterly'' 43: 111-17. R.S. Corruccini and J.S. Handler. 1980
Temporomandibular Joint Size Decrease in American Blacks: Evidence from Barbados.
''Journal of Dental Research'' 59:1528.

Academic life

Corruccini earned his

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

Anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

and

Geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...

at the

University of Colorado, Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sys ...

in 1971, and his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

and

Paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 1975. He was named an

Aleš Hrdlička Alois Ferdinand Hrdlička, after 1918 changed to Aleš Hrdlička (; March 30,HRDLICKA, ALES ...

Scholar in 1975-1976 by the

, later becoming a communications coordinator for the

Universities Space Research Association The Universities Space Research Association (USRA) was incorporated on March 12, 1969, in Washington, D.C. as a private, nonprofit corporation under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Institutional membership in the asso ...

in Boulder, Colorado. In 1977, Corruccini returned to his alma mater, teaching

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

at the

. In 1978, he joined the Anthropology Department at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale as a

tenure-track Tenure is a category of academic appointment existing in some countries. A tenured post is an indefinite academic appointment that can be terminated only for cause or under extraordinary circumstances, such as financial exigency or program disco ...

assistant professor Assistant Professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States and Canada. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doctoral degree A docto ...

, 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.

Human dentition

As a dental anthropologist, Corruccini is most noted for his work on

, though his research is not limited to any particular aspect of human or non-human

primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians ( monkeys and apes, the latter including ...

dentition or

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

.R.S. Corruccini, I. Shimada, K. Shinoda. 2002
Dental and mtDNA Relatedness Among Thousand-Year-Old Remains from Huaca Loro, Peru.
''Dental Anthropology Journal'' 16 (1):9-14. Much of his early fieldwork in dentition and many of his 250-plus publications focused on

twins Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...

immigrants Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, a ...

Australian Aborigines Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Isla ...

, and on the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

, with this research being funded by the

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, experimentati ...

, the

, and the Leakey Foundation. However, Corruccini's research into

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 ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

, the Pima Tribe, natives of

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

hominoids Apes (collectively Hominoidea ) are a clade of Old World simians native to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (though they were more widespread in Africa, most of Asia, and as well as Europe in prehistory), which together with its siste ...

, and modern

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

Theory of malocclusion

Corruccini's long term research into the origins of

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 Squirrel monkeys are New World monkeys of the genus ''Saimiri''. ''Saimiri'' is the only genus in the subfamily Saimirinae. The name of the genus is of Tupi origin (''sai-mirím'' or ''çai-mbirín'', with ''sai'' meaning 'monkey' and ''mirím'' ...

that revealed that diet may play a significant role in occlusal health. Corruccini later asserted that the consumption of a

western diet The Western pattern diet is a modern dietary pattern that is generally characterized by high intakes of pre-packaged foods, refined grains, red meat, processed meat, high-sugar drinks, candy and sweets, fried foods, conventionally-raised anim ...

, or "Industrial Diet" may be one of the factors responsible for the swelling epidemic of

malocclusions In orthodontics, a malocclusion is a misalignment or incorrect relation between the teeth of the upper and lower dental arches when they approach each other as the jaws close. The English-language term dates from 1864; Edward Angle (1855-1930) ...

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 Noel Thomas Boaz (born 8 February 1952) is an American biological anthropologist, author, educator, physician, and founder of the Virginia Museum of Natural History. In addition he is founder of the Integrative Centers for Science and Medicine a ...

'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

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 , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , ...

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 National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...

, the

Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Axel Lennart Wenner-Gren (5 June 1881 – 24 November 1961) was a Swedish entrepreneur and one of the wealthiest men in the world during the 1930s. Early life He was born on 5 June 1881 in Uddevalla, a town on the west coast of Sweden. H ...

, Southern Illinois University Office of Development and Research, and the

National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, an ...

References

Select publications

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, * R.S. Corruccini. ''HALLA: Demographic Consequences of the Partition of the Punjab, 1947'' (Corruccini and S.S. Kaul), Lanham: University Press of America, 1990, * 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, * 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, * R.S. Corruccini. ''The Human Experience: A Recitation Manual for Anthropology'', (with A. Balkansky and M. Harrison), Dubuque: Kendall-Hunt, 2007,

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.

External links

Robert S. Corruccini Academic Homepage

Robert S. Corruccini Curriculum Vitae
{{DEFAULTSORT:Corrucini, Robert Southern Illinois University faculty Medical anthropologists Physical anthropologists Forensic anthropologists American paleoanthropologists 1949 births Living people People from Takoma Park, Maryland 20th-century American anthropologists 21st-century American anthropologists