John D. Bengtson

John D. Bengtson is an historical and anthropological linguist. He is past president (1995 - 2000) and currently vice-president of the Association for the Study of Language in Prehistory (ASLIP), and has served as editor of the journal Mother Tongue (1996-2003 and 2007-). He has been a participant in the Evolution of Human Language Project, sponsored by Murray Gell-Mann and the Santa Fe Institute (http://ehl.santafe.edu/), and the associated Tower of Babel project (http://starling.rinet.ru/).

His areas of specialization include:

*Scandinavian languages and linguistics

*Indo-European linguistics

*African languages

*Dene-Caucasian languages (Basque, Burushaski, etc.)

*Paleolinguistics (the study of prehistory through linguistic evidence)

*Early human language

*General Anthropology

His hobbies include music, baseball, and enjoying the company of two sons, two daughters, and three grandchildren.