Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Reproductive ecology and human fertility
- 3 Nutritional status: its measurement and relation to health
- 4 Pollution and human growth: lead, noise, polychlorobiphenyl compounds and toxic wastes
- 5 Human physiological adaptation to high-altitude environments
- 6 Darwinian fitness, physical fitness and physical activity
- 7 Human evolution and the genetic epidemiology of chronic degenerative diseases
- 8 The biology of human aging
- Index
8 - The biology of human aging
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Reproductive ecology and human fertility
- 3 Nutritional status: its measurement and relation to health
- 4 Pollution and human growth: lead, noise, polychlorobiphenyl compounds and toxic wastes
- 5 Human physiological adaptation to high-altitude environments
- 6 Darwinian fitness, physical fitness and physical activity
- 7 Human evolution and the genetic epidemiology of chronic degenerative diseases
- 8 The biology of human aging
- Index
Summary
Introduction
Biological anthropologists have long been interested in human variation along with the processes of growth, development and maturation that produced the highly individualistic phenotypes that make up human populations. Other disciplines have also concerned themselves with the phenomenon of human variation, sometimes from the perspective of its relation to human performance as is the case with sports medicine or exercise physiology. Still others, such as paediatrics and human nutrition, focus on the factors that influence growth and maintenance. Biological anthropologists, however, approach the study of human variability from an evolutionary perspective. The questions that are generated by the evolutionary approach will often yield less precise answers but have the redeeming virtue of opening up areas of investigation that might otherwise be ignored. Because of this ability to see problems from an evolutionary perspective, the biological anthropologist has much to contribute to the study of human aging.
For instance, world-wide demographic trends are reshaping the demographic profile in unprecedented ways. A large proportion of the human population is surviving beyond the age of reproduction. Most notable is the extension of life expectancy of women who, in industrialized nations of North America, Europe and Japan, may expect to outlive men by an average of 6 or 7 years. Yet it is the female of our species who experiences a clear-cut end to reproductive life with the completion of menopause.
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- Applications of Biological Anthropology to Human Affairs , pp. 207 - 236Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991
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