American anthropologist and human biologist
Edward Eyre Hunt Jr. (1922 — 1991) (also known as Ed Hunt) was an American physical anthropologist and human biologist.[1] He did bachelor's, master's and a Ph.D. from the Harvard University in 1942, 1949 and 1951, respectively. He worked at several academic institutions including the Harvard University, City University of New York, Yale University and Pennsylvania State University until his retirement in 1985.
He was a co-founder of the United States' Dental Anthropological Association, and is viewed by some academics as one of the founders of applied medical anthropology. He died at the age of nearly 69 years because of an embolism that was developed after he underwent a gallbladder surgery. He was married to Vilma Rose Hunt.
Family
Hunt was born in 1922 at Springfield, Ohio to Edward Eyre Hunt (Sr.) and Virginia Lloyd Fox Hunt. Edward Hunt (Sr.) (1885–1953) was an economist and war correspondent who had worked in the administrations of Warren Harding, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Virginia Hunt (1888–1977) was an editor, goldsmith, painter and writer.[1]
He was married to Vilma Rose Hunt. In 1952, Vilma traveled to Boston to study dentistry. She met Ed Hunt at the Forsyth Dental Infirmary. They married in 1952, moved to Gloucester, Massachusetts, and had four children: Margaret, William, Louise Rounds, and Catherine. They also fostered a daughter, Martine Lebret. Margaret became the chair of the women and gender studies department at Amherst College. Vilma and Ed Hunt retired in 1985.[3]
Education and academic career
Ed Hunt completed his B.A. from the Harvard College in 1942. After completing his bachelor's, he served in the United States military as a "psychology statistician" for the "Flying Safety Branch" of the United States Army Air Corps for a period of four years. He rejoined Harvard in 1946, and started his graduate work in the subject of physical anthropology. He did an anthropological study on the "depopulation of Yap" in Micronesia which was sponsored by the United States Navy. He utilized the data from the study to complete his M.A. and Ph.D. at the Harvard University in 1949 and 1951, respectively. His doctoral advisor was Earnest Albert Hooton.[1]
From 1951 to 1966, Hunt worked at the Harvard University as "statistics instructor" at Harvard's Forsyth Dental Infirmary in Boston and as a lecturer of anthropology, with the exception of 1956.[1] In 1956, he worked as a visiting lecturer at the University of Melbourne's Department of Anatomy under the Fulbright Scholar Program.[4] Between 1966 and 1969, he served at the City University of New York as a professor of anthropology and at the Yale Medical School as an assistant professor. From 1969 to until his retirement in 1985, he served as a professor of anthropology at the Pennsylvania State University. In 1986, he co-founded the Dental Anthropological Association (US).[1]
Research
Ed Hunt was a member of several research focused organizations which included the American Anthropology Association, American Eugenics Society, and American Society of Human Genetics.[5] His prime area of research were the "evolutionary aspects of dental and skeletal morphogenesis, and human growth and development". His research subjects included body composition, demography, dermatoglyphics, history of anthropology, primate behavior, and somatology.[1] He also investigated the ideas which contradicted the conventional scientific beliefs. He had done a through research on Bigfoot's "possible existence" and concluded that there was not adequate proof for Bigfoot's existence.[2]
Hunt wanted the focal point of the whole field of biological anthropology to be "causes" instead of "descriptions". Binghamton University's Gary D. James noted that Hunt's suggested studying approach that growth studies should focus on "causes for individual and population variability" contributed in "changing the study of growth from a largely descriptive science to one focused on variation".[1] According to Paul T. Baker, he played a key role in changing "physical anthropology from a descriptive science into one with a Darwinian and problem-solving orientation".[2] According to the anthropologists Marcha Flint and Leslie Sue Lieberman, he promoted the bio-cultural perspective in the field of human biology and he was one of the originators of applied medical anthropology.[6] Binghamton University's Gary D. James noted that the research work of some of his contemporary scholars including Carleton S. Coon, Stanley M. Garn and Paul T. Baker was "strongly influenced" by Hunt. Hunt was versed in the use of statistics.[1] According to Flint and Lieberman, he pioneered the application of statistics to the fields of physical anthropology and human biology.[6]
Death
Hunt died in 1991 at Magnolia, Massachusetts. He had undergone a surgery of the gallbladder. However, after the surgery, an embolism occurred, resulting in his death. In his youth, he had also had Hodgkin's disease, but that was completely cured.[1][2]
