David Webb |
Physical Anthropologist |
Welcome to my Web(b) site. For Kutztown students, the most
important information may be under COURSES listed below. Clicking on the course name will take
you to the syllabus for that course.
For any who are interested, I've added an abbreviated curriculum vitaebelow, beginning with my EDUCATION. From my vitayou may guess that I'm particularly interested in the origins and development of human walking. My Ph.D. thesis was entitled "The Function of the Upper Limbs in Human Walking," and parts of it have been published as articles or given as presentations, over the years. I'm currently working on Fourier analysis as a way of describing basic locomotor movements in humans and other primates. Fourier analysis describes an ordered dataset (like the changing shoulder angle of a gorilla as it walks) as the sum of a series of sine and cosine curves. I've also been working on the genetics behind toe and finger anatomy, and on the growth and development of human feet, particularly the toes. Toes and fingers are affected by many of the same genes, making it likely that the evolution of our feet, adapting us to walking upright on the ground, has affected the shape of our hands. In the fall of 2003, I was in Brazil, at the University of Sao Paulo, teaching and developing a better way to estimate toe length in humans from footprints alone. Since I'm interested in the growth of feet, I'm always looking for children who don't mind giving me a footprint. (I carry a homemade footprinting kit in the trunk of my car and another one in my briefcase, so I'm always ready.)
I also carry dissection gloves
and large plastic bags in the trunk of my car, because I like road-kill. I've collected all sorts of interesting
local animals, and I "skeletalize" them at my friend's farm. Once the insects have removed nearly
all the flesh, I'm left with skeletons which become excellent teaching
specimens. If you're interested in
developing your own skeletal collection, please be aware that in Pennsylvania
you must have a license (from the Game Commission) to pick up dead
animals. I recently acquired a
large snapping turtle for skeletalization, but fish, amphibians and reptiles
aren't covered by my Game Commission Salvage License. Luckily, I have a fishing license, too.
If you have questions of an
anthropological nature, please feel free to contact me. I like to make myself available to the
general public, whether you're part of the University or not. I usually give one or two presentations
to local public schools each year, and I occassionally visit other nearby
universities. A couple of years
ago, with the help of my wife, I had the local second grade class trying to
catch superballs with one eye covered.
Besides being really funny to watch, it gave them a good appreciation of
the value of stereoscopic vision, a hallmark of all primates including
humans. In Spring 2005, I
developed a new merit badge for the local Girl Scout troop: Ancient Lives. We had a great time using an atlatl,
making stone tools and drawing "cave paintings."
ANT 010: Cultural Anthropology
ANT 020:
Physical Anthropology (Spring 2010)
ANT 021: Physical Anthropology Lab
ANT 105: Classical Archaeology
(Fall 2009)
ANT 258:
Forensic Anthropology (Spring 2010)
ANT 272:
Human Genetics (Fall 2008)
ANT 273:
Primate Studies (Spring 2009)
ANT 274:
Human Evolution (Fall 2009)
ANT 380: Senior Seminar (Spring
2010)
EDW 569: Teaching Human Osteology
University of Chicago,
Department of Anthropology, Chicago,
Illinois. Doctor of Philosophy,
December 1989. Master of Arts,
June 1986.
Cornell University, College of Arts and Sciences, Ithaca, New York. Bachelor of Arts, May 1983.
University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland. Courses taken in Scots Gaelic, Archaeology of Britain and
Biology, Oct. 1981 - June 1982.
Northwestern University, Archeological Field School, Kampsville, Illinois. Courses taken in Human Osteology, Archeological Field Methods and Collective Approach to Archeology, Summer 1985.
Fall 1996 - present Associate Professor of
Anthropology
Kutztown University (Pennsylvania) Department of
Anthropology/Sociology
Fall 1990 - Spring 1996 Assistant Professor of
Anthropology
Kutztown University (Pennsylvania) Department of
Anthropology/Sociology
Spring 1990 Lecturer of Anthropology
DePaul University (Chicago) Department of Sociology
Winter 1986 - Winter 1990 Teaching Assistant in Human Anatomy
University of Chicago
Department of Anatomy
Fall 1989 Teaching Assistant in Biology Common
Core Labs
University of Chicago Biological Sciences Collegiate Division
Winter 1987 - Fall 1988 Teaching Assistant in Anthropology
University of Chicago Department of Anthropology
Grant Referee, National
Science Foundation, Anthropology subsection
Grant Referee, Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, Faculty
Professional Development Council, Anthropology proposals
Book Manuscript Reviewer, The Human Species: An Introduction to Biological
Anthropoology, 7th ed., by John
H. Relethford, McGraw-Hill, 2008.
Book Manuscript Reviewer, Our Origins: Discovering physical
anthropology, by Clark Spencer Larsen,
Norton Publishing, 2008.
Book Manuscript Reviewer, The Life of Primates, by Pia Nystrom and Pamela Ashmore, Prentice Hall
Book Manuscript Reviewer, Anthropology: The exploration of human
diversity, 8th ed., Conrad Phillip Kottak,
McGraw-Hill, 2000.
Manuscript Referee, American Journal of Physical Anthropology
Manuscript Referee, Journal of Comparative Human Biology
Manuscript Referee, Bulletin of the New Mexico Museum of Natural
History
Advisor, Kutztown University Anthropology/Sociology Club, 1990 to present
Member, Graduate Faculty, Kutztown University
Member, Honors Faculty, Kutztown University
American Association of Physical
Anthropologists
American Anthropological Association
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Webb, David and Sarah Fabiny, "Cheiridial Genetics and Tool Use Among Later Hominids," Anthropologie, Vol.47, 2009. (in press)
Webb, David, "Toe Indexer", ImageJ: Image Processing and Analysis in Java, Wayne S. Rasband, ed., National Institutes of Health, August 8, 2008 <http://rsbweb.nih.gov/ij/macros/Toe_Indexer.txt>.
Webb, D. and A. Sparrow, "Description of Joint Movements and Interlimb Coordination in Human and Non-Human Primates with Reference to the Origins of Bipedalism," Primates, Vol.48, No.4, pp.277-292, 2007.
Webb, D., D. V. Bernardo and T. Hermenegildo, "Evaluating and improving footprint measurement for clinical and scientific testing," Anthropologie, Vol.44, No.3, pp.269-279, 2006.
Webb, D., Kutztown University's Online Index to the American Journal of Physical Anthropology (Old Series), 2003. http://faculty.kutztown.edu/webb/AJPAIndex.htm
Musiba, C.M., R.H. Tuttle, B. Hallgrimsson and D. Webb, "Swift and sure-footed on the savanna: a study of Hadzabe gaits and feet in northern Tanzania," American Journal of Human Biology, Vol.9, pp.303-321, 1997.
Webb, D., "Maximum Walking
Speed and Lower Limb Length in Hominids," American Journal of Physical
Anthropology, Vol. 101, pp. 515-525, 1996.
Webb, D., "Correspondence: Whose Rights?," commentary, Anthropology Newsletter, April 1994.
Webb, D., R. H. Tuttle and M.Baksh, "Pendular Activity of Human Upper Limbs During Slow and Normal Walking," American Journal of Physical Anthropology , Vol. 93, pp.477-490, 1994.
Tuttle, R.H., D. Webb, N.I.Tuttle and M. Baksh, "Footprints and gaits of bipedal apes, bears and barefoot people: perspectives on Pliocene tracks," in Topics in Primatology, Volume3: Evolutionary Biology, Reproductive Endocrinology, and Virology, edited by M.Goodman, H. Ishida, S. Matano and R. Tuttle, Tokyo, Univ. of Tokyo Press, 1992
Tuttle, R.H., D. Webb and
M.Baksh, "Laetoli Toes and Australopithecus afarensis," Human
Evolution, Vol. 6, pp.193-200, 1991.
Tuttle, R.H., D. Webb and N.I.Tuttle, "Laetoli footprint trails and the evolution of hominid bipedalism,"in The Origin(s) of Bipedalism in Hominids, edited by Y. Coppens & B. Senut, Paris, C.N.R.S., 1991.
Tuttle, R., D. Webb, E. Weidland M. Baksh, "Further progress on the Laetoli Trails," Journal of Archaeological Science, Vol.17, pp.347-352,1990.
Webb, D and S. Bratsch, ’ÄúStep width and carrying: a biomechanical mystery solved,’Äù Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Albuquerque, NM, 2010.
Webb, D., D.V. Bernardo and Tonya Ciccone, ’ÄúA flexible new program for computer-aided footprint analysis: demonstration, discussion and application,’Äù Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Chicago, IL, 2009.
Webb, D. and H. Ward, "Staggering under the load: biomechanics of carrying as indicated by footprint trail parameters," Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Columbus, OH, 2008.
Webb, D., D.V. Bernardo and T. Hermenegildo, "Measuring footprints: Refining the methods," Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Philadelphia, 2007.
Webb, D., symposium chairman, "Functional Anatomy and Locomotion", Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Philadelphia, 2007.
Webb, D. and S. Fabiny, "Human hands are adapted for bipedalism, not tool use," Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Kansas City,2001.
Manley-Buser, K.A., D. Webb and
M. Allen, "Was the Laetoli G-3 hominid a juvenile?," American
Association of Physical Anthropologists, Kansas City, 2001.
Webb, D. and W. A. Sparrow, "Fourier analysis as a quantitative descriptor of joint angles in various forms of human locomotion," Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Salt Lake City, 1998.
Tuttle, R, C. Musiba and D.Webb,
"False impressions from the Laetoli hominid footprints," Annual
Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Salt Lake
City, 1998.
Webb, D. and W. A. Sparrow, "Comparison of joint angles in primate locomotion using Fourier analysis," Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, St. Louis, 1997.
Webb, D., "Why people run and the evolutionary implications of lower limb length," Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Denver, 1994.
Tuttle, R., D. Webb, and M.Baksh, "Did Australopithecus afarensis make the Laetoli footprint trails?" Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Milwaukee, 1991.
Webb, D., R. Tuttle and M.Baksh, "The relationship between stride frequency and upper limb frequency in human walking," 17th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association of Physical Anthropology, Vancouver, 1990.
Webb, D., "Changes in footprint trail parameters associated with carrying a moderate load, "Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Miami,1990.
Webb, D., "The function of the upper limbs in human bipedalism, or How your arms swing when you walk," December 6 Meeting of the Anthropology/Sociology Club, Kutztown University, Kutztown, PA, 1990.
Webb, D., R. Tuttle and M.Baksh, "The effects of stride frequency on the motion of the upper limbs in human walking," Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, San Diego, 1989.
Tuttle, R.H., D.M. Webb and M.Baksh, "The pattern of little feet," Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, San Diego, 1989.
Last updated: January 14, 2010