Methodology

While contemporary Anthropology does not maintain a well-defined track in methodology (as you might see, for instance, in Political Science), I see the development of new methods for measuring and modeling behavior – and the integration with and incorporation of developments in cognate fields – as essential to the advancement of Scientific Anthropology. Methodological development is not simply the application of cookbook principles to new data. It is about finding improved ways to test important scientific hypotheses, not simply the ones that are amenable to standard statistical analysis. Some areas where I maintain particular methodological interest include: the use of multi-model inference, the application of stochastic demography to questions of human life history evolution, the use of hierarchical and "random-effects" statistical models, the development of tools for analyzing social networks, and the application of individual-based stochastic models and agent-based models to anthropological problems.

There is a strong methodological emphasis in my teaching as well. Because I believe that learning tools for independent research and critical thinking is essential for graduate and undergraduate students alike, my classes typically focus on teaching research tools. Such tools include methods of data analysis, mathematical and quantitative reasoning about anthropological questions, statistical inference for complex scientific problems, and the effective communication of scientific results through lucid writing and oral communication.

Representative Papers

Salathé, M. and J.H. Jones. (2010) Dynamics and Control of Diseases in Networks with Community Structure, PLoS Computational Biology. 6(4): e1000736. (doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000736). [PDF]

Jones, J.H., M.L. Wilson, C. Murray, and A.E. Pusey. (2010) Phenotypic quality influences fertility in Gombe chimpanzees, Journal of Animal Ecology, 79(6): 1262-1269. (doi:10.1111/j.1365-2656.2010.01687.x) [PDF]

Keele*, B.F., J. H. Jones*, K. A. Terio*, J. D. Estes*, R. S. Rudicell*, M. L. Wilson*, Y. Li, G. H. Learn, T. M. Beasley, J. Schumacher-Stankey, E. Wroblewski, A. Mosser, J. Raphael, S. Kamenya, E. V. Lonsdorf, J. G. Else, G. Silvestri, J. Goodall, P. M. Sharp, G. M. Shaw, A. E. Pusey and B. H. Hahn. (2009) Increased Mortality and AIDS-like Immunopathology in Wild Chimpanzees Infected with SIVcpz, Nature, 460: 515-519. (doi:10.1038/nature08200). [PDF]*=authors contributed equally.

Jones, J.H. and B.D. Ferguson. (2009) Demographic and social predictors of intimate partner violence in Colombia: A dyadic power perspective, Human Nature, 20(2): 184-203. [PDF] (doi:10.1007/s12110-009-9064-6)

Bliege Bird, R., D.W. Bird, B.F. Codding, C.H. Parker and J.H. Jones. (2008) Anthropogenic fire mosaics, biodiversity and Australian Aboriginal foraging strategies: A test of the “Fire Stick Farming” hypothesis, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 105(39): 14. [PDF]

Emery Thompson, M., J.H. Jones, A.E. Pusey, S. Brewer-Marsden, J. Goodall, D. Marsden, T. Matsuzawa, T. Nishida, V. Reynolds, Y. Sugiyama, and R.W. Wrangham. (2007) Aging and fertility in wild chimpanzees: implications for evolution of menopause. Current Biology, 17(24): 1-7. (doi:10.1016/j.cub.2007.11.033) [PDF]

Handcock, M.S. and J.H. Jones. (2006) Interval estimates for epidemic thresholds in two-sex network models, Theoretical Population Biology. 70(2): 125-134. [PDF]

Jones, J.H. (2006) The relative concentration of net maternity in chimpanzees and humans. American Journal of Human Biology, 18(2): 260

J.H. Jones (2005) Fetal programming: Adaptive life-history tactic or making the best of a bad start? American Journal of Human Biology, 17(1): 22-33. [PDF]

Jones, J.H. (2005) Environmental variability, life-history tactics, and Neanderthal extinction. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Suppl. 40: 123.

Handcock, M.S. and J.H. Jones. (2004) Likelihood-based inference for stochastic models of sexual network evolution. Theoretical Population Biology, 65: 413-422. [PDF]