Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
populations (biological distance);
8
and adaptations to behavior and activity in addition to
insults that may have occurred to the individual during or after life.
9
Thus, skeletal biology
overall is a major focus in many aspects of biological anthropology: bioarchaeology, forensic
anthropology, paleoanthropology, and comparative primate anatomy. This volume, however,
has as its focus skeletal biology as it relates to modern humans.
The Biocultural Perspective
The biocultural perspective, as defined by
Armelagos and Van Gerven (2003)
, is that
culture is an environmental force affecting and interacting with biological adaptation.
Humans therefore have a unique biocultural evolutionary history as a result of the mutual
interaction of biology and culture. While early physical anthropology (with the notable
exception of Franz Boas, discussed below) largely ignored the influence of culture on
biology,
10
biological anthropology today is increasingly cognizant of the interrelationship
between (1) environment, (2) culture, and (3) biology.
Cartmill (1999
:658) states (emphasis
added), “
culture always affects the interaction between genes and environment in our
species.” This is because human experience is constrained by the three major factors
mentioned above.
You are able to read this text because (1) reading exists in your culture and (2) your
culture has decided that literacy is important; and therefore you were taught how to read
as a child. However, your environment, including the social environment of where you
were raised played a role as well: your parents or caretakers made the decision for you
that you would learn to read, and they provided the necessary resources for you to be
able to do so (transportation to school, school supplies, shelter at night, proper nutrition,
preventive and curative medical care, etc.). Further, the fact that you were provided with
proper nutrition and medical care affected your biology so that your brain and body could
focus on more than just staying alive. Had you been born into a different culture where
written language did not exist, you would not have learned how to read, even given your
biological potential to be able to do so (a functioning human brain and sensory organs). If
you had experienced different sociocultural circumstances as a child, perhaps the same
would be true. Therefore, all three variables are inextricably linked: your sociocultural
surroundings are just as much a part of your environment as climate, nutrition, diet, and
exposure to pathogens are due to their mutual interaction. Therefore, biology is affected
by both culture and physical environment.
As a result, in biological anthropology our analyses are focused on this dynamic
interaction. We cannot understand the individual, never mind the population to which
the individual belonged if we do not attempt to uncover the cultural and environmental
factors that have affected the biology of the skeletons we analyze. This biocultural interac-
tion is not only preserved in the composition of the bones themselves, but recorded in
the context of the remains' deposition. The study of the human skeleton can therefore
.
8
See Konigsberg and Frankenberg (Chapter 11); McKeown and Schmidt (Chapter 12); and Cabana et al.
(Chapter 16), this volume.
9
See Moore (Chapter 14); Kroman and Symes (Chapter 8); and Marden et al. (Chapter 9), this volume.
10
See discussion in DiGangi and Hefner (Chapter 5), this volume.
