TRIBUTE TO JAN JELÍNEK (1926–2004)

• Published in: Anthropologie (Brno) Vol. 43; no. 2/3; pp. 101 - 102
• Main Authors: DOČKALOVÁ, MARTA, FRAYER, DAVID
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Brno Moravian Museum 01.01.2005; Moravian Museum, Anthropos Institute
• Subjects: ORIGINAL PAPERS • TRAVAUX ORIGINAUX • ORIGINALARBEITEN
• ISSN: 0323-1119; 2570-9127

This volume represents a tribute to Jan Jelínek, our friend, mentor and colleague who died October 3, 2004. Jan led a rich life and fit the definition of a paleoanthropologist, long before the term became commonplace in our field. Throughout his academic career he was involved in many research projects from prehistoric excavations at numerous sites and time periods in the Czech Republic, to primary descriptions of fossil material, to ethnoarchaeology in Australia, and to documentation and analysis of rock art in Australia and Libya. Just before his death, he finished a comprehensive review of living structures, titled Strecha nad hlavou. Koreny nejstarsí architektury. A House to Live In. Brno University of Technology, VUTIUM Press, 2006, 452 pp. This along with his Great Pictorial Atlas of Prehistoric Man (1972) is a massive compilation of the abilities of humans to adapt, survive and evolve in a worldwide perspective. He was also an innovative museum designer, and founded, built and designed the Anthropos Pavilion in Brno. He worked on the international promotion of museums with UNESCO and established paleoanthropology with an interdisciplinary focus in the Anthropos Institute of the Moravian Museum. He was also a founding member of the European Anthropology Association and its president in 1981-1984. In 1962 he revived this journal, initially published in Prague until 1941 and revamped it into a diverse journal in anthropology, encompassing the discipline in its broadest scope. Jan was always full of energy and had the ability to turn his ideas into finished products, whether new museum exhibits or books. He was a remarkable, dynamic person, always full of ideas and initiative and accomplished several lifetimes of work over his five decades of paleoanthropological research. Jan was a special person and we will miss him, always. For this issue of Anthropologie we invited many of Jan Jelínek's friends, students and colleagues who focus on the analysis of skeletal remains to submit papers in his honour. The diversity of papers reflects the eclectic, yet sophisticated competence of Jan and his wide-ranging interests about issues in human evolution.