Jim Bindon

Professor Emeritus

Bio

I studied a variety of biological outcomes among Samoans such as infant and childhood health and growth, adult obesity and blood pressure, DNA polymorphisms and physique, and chronic diseases including diabetes and cardiovascular disease. I related these health outcomes to residence in different communities, diet and activity patterns, education and occupation, and stress due to changing lifestyles as a result of modernization and migration (see several of the papers listed below for details). I also conducted similar research on biocultural aspects of health among the Mississippi Choctaw, in an African-American population in Alabama and among hotel workers in Hawaii.  For the past decade plus, I have been reading and teaching about all aspects of race: origins of the concept, misapplications to humans especially in the U.S., genetics and race, etc.