The theme of this book is the analysis of the changes that have occurred in the kinship patterns of the Toka of South Zambia as a result of a shift in their form of production from hoe agriculture to ox-drawn ploughing. Dr Holy uses the rich, detailed ethnography that he provides about these changes to confront several theoretical issues of current anthropological interest, as well as to examine the basic methodological problems of anthropological enquiry. Emphasizing the distinction between the conceptual and cognitive world of the actors, and the transactions and events in which they...

The first major account of the somatotyping field in over thirty years, this volume presents a comprehensive history of somatotyping, beginning with W.H. Sheldon's introduction to the method in 1940. The controversies regarding the validity of Sheldon's method are described, as are the various attempts to modify the technique, particularly the Heath-Carter method, which has come into widespread use. Somatotyping is a method of description and assessment of the body on three shape and composition scales: endomorphy (relative fatness), mesomorphy (relative musculoskeletal robustness), and...

Somatotyping is a method of description and assessment of the body on three shape and composition scales: endomorphy (relative fatness), mesomorphy (relative musculoskeletal robustness), and ectomorphy (relative linearity). This book presents a comprehensive history of somatotyping, beginning with W. Sheldon's introduction of the method in 1940. The controversies regarding the validity of Sheldon's method are described, as are the various attempts to modify the technique, particularly the Heath-Carter method, which has come into widespread use. The book reviews present knowledge of...

This book shows how data collected from more than 1000 participants during the past sixty years have been analyzed to test a wide range of hypotheses, and describes how the findings have led to the development of improved research methods. Topics covered include the management and analysis of data, prenatal, familial and genetic studies, physical growth, development and maturation, bones and teeth, body composition, and risk factors for cardiovascular disease. With more than 1000 specialized publications of Fels data to date, the present book provides a unique overview of this fascinating...

Anthropometry, the measurement of human morphology, is used in a wide range of applied and research contexts. In this volume, anthropologists, human biologists, physiologists, nutritionists and clinical scientists describe many of the ways in which anthropometry is used, and discuss problems associated with different methods of assessment. Topics include the measurement of growth asymmetry and variability in adult body size, measurement error and statistical issues in anthropometry, and the construction and use of growth charts in growth monitoring. The use of anthropometry in assessments of...

This is the first book-length study of popular culture in a medieval Islamic city. Dr. Shoshan draws together a wealth of Arabic sources to explore popular religion against the background of the growing influence of Sufism, an important biography of Muhammad that was suppressed by the learned, and the origins and popular practices of the annual Nawruz festival. He also assesses the political beliefs and economic expectations of the Carene commoners and the complex relationship between the culture of the elite and that of the people of Cairo.

Many aspects of human activity involve energy transfer of some type. Human Energetics in Biological Anthropology examines some of the ways in which measurements of energy intake, expenditure and balance have been used to study human populations by biological anthropologists and human biologists. The book provides an integration of human adaptation and adaptability approaches, placing these issues in an ecological context by considering traditional subsistence economies in the developing world. This is the first volume to present such an integrated approach, and will be useful in the teaching...

Plasticity refers to the ability of many organisms to change their biology or behavior to respond to changes in the environment. Humans are probably the most plastic of all species, and hence the most variable. This is the first book to examine the history of research in this area and it provides information on state-of-the-art research methods and discoveries. It also maps out some areas of future research in human plasticity and variability. Topics discussed include child growth, starvation, diseases of both young and old, and the effects of migration, modernization and other life-style...

Exactly how modern humans evolved is a subject of intense debate. This book deals with the evolution of modern humans from an archaic ancestor and the differentiation of modern populations from each other. The first section of the book investigates whether modern populations arose from regional archaic hominid groups that were already different from each other, and argues that in fact, most lines of evidence support a single, recent origin of modern humans in Africa. Dr. Lahr then goes on to examine ways in which this diversification could have occurred, given what we know from fossils,...

Organisms are continually challenged to regulate and maintain functional capacities as their thermal environment changes. Adjustment to temperature change is evident both phenotypically in individual organisms and genotypically in the evolution of species. This volume addresses thermal adaptation by bringing together many of the leading researchers in thermal biology, with backgrounds spanning the disciplines of molecular biology, cell biology, physiology, zoology, ecology and evolutionary biology. The responses of many species to temperature are discussed in depth, through the molecular,...