HUMAN ADAPTATION

Oct 16, 2026

Uploaded by McQueen

Human Adaptation presents the concept of adaptation as it operates at the intersection of human biology, cultural process, and social organization. Guided by four anthropological perspectives—genetic, physiological, behavioural, and cultural—the work clarifies distinctions between adaptation as a causal explanation and adaptability as a species capacity. It addresses how adaptation functions within evolutionary biology and kin selection, while emphasizing the complexities and risks of applying terms such as fitness and adaptation across scientific and everyday meanings.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages178

Reading Time7 h 29 min

AccessFree to download

Preface

Adaptation as a concept and its everyday vs scientific meanings

Adaptation, causality, and human adaptability

High-altitude physiology and preadaptation

Four anthropological perspectives: genetic, physiological, behavioural, cultural

Adaptation in evolutionary biology and kin selection

606554572/ HumanAdaptation Edited by G.A.Harrisonand Howard Morphy # HUMAN ADAPTATION | WITHDRAWN FROM
RADCLIFFE SCIENCE LIBRARY | | | --- | --- | | LEGAL DEPOSIT COPY | NO | | LAST BODLEIAN COPY | NO | | RECENT USAGE | NO | . OV Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2023 with funding fromKahle/Austin Foundation # HUMAN ADAPTATION EDITED BY G.A.HARRISON Emeritus Professor of Biological AnthropologyUniversity of Oxford and Emeritus Fellow of Linacre College HOWARD MORPHY Professor of Anthropology,University College London;Professor of Anthropology,Australian National University;andHonorary Curator,Pitt Rivers Research Centre Oxford·New York | Oxford Uaiversity Library
Services
BodlcinLIbray | | --- | First published in 1993 by Oxford University PressReprinted with a new Preface in 1998 by Berg Editorial offices: 150 Cowley Road,Oxford,OX41J,UK70 Washington Square South,New York,NY 10012,USA ◎ G.A.Harrison and Howard Morphy 1998 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means withoutthe written permission of Berg. Berg is the imprint of Oxford International Publishers Ltd. # Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. # British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 185973958X(Paper) Printed in the United Kingdom by WBC Book Manufacturers,Mid-Glamorgan. PREFACE Howard Morpby and Geoffrey Harrison When visiting a doctor for a general examination one of us was subjected to theusual interrogation on exercise.Playing cricket and squash fairly regularly couldperhaps have provided a satisfactory answer.But no,jogging was what wasrequired at the time:Playing cricket is not like being chased by a sabre-toothedtiger.For99 per cent of our history we have been hunters and gatherers,survivalof the fittest you know?There was no point in taking the discussion further byquestioning the underlying assumptions about hunter-gatherers,providing moredetails about Pleistocene environments,or suggesting that squash might indeedhave been as good a preparation as any for being chased by a sabre-toothedtiger!The cure was a fixed one,partly fashion,partly medical common sense;the packaging reflected folk wisdom with a little anthropological knowledgefiltering through. The idea of adaptation is a part of Western folk wisdom about the world aswellas being integral to Darwinian evolutionary theory.As Malcolm Smith arguesin Chapter 1,adaptation is a 'common sense default assumption'.It is very easyto slip between scientific and everyday uses of terms such as 'fitness'and'adaptation'.It is also easy to confuse adaptation in a causal sense -that thepresence of a particular gene or pattern of behaviour is caused by its particularfunction-with the human capacity to adapt to a particular circumstance.Adaptability,in the sense of the capacity to act flexibly and to respond to verydifferent environmental circumstances,to different social contexts and to differenttechnological problems,is a characteristic of the human species.But to say thata particular response,a particular demonstration of the adaptability of humanbeings,is the result of adaptation is to confuse the capacity to do something withits functional purpose and origin.Of course the two are related,since if indiv-iduals show such adaptability then the capacity is a species characteristic produced as a species adaptation by evolution! The physiological capacity that enables human beings to adapt to living inhigh altitudes provides an excellent example of the need to separate adaptationas a causal factor in the particular context from the ultimate ways in which theparticular adaptation may be exploited.Geoffrey Harrison shows in Chapter 2how the capacity to adapt to living at high altitude is unlikely to h

FAQs

What question about exercise prompts the book’s discussion in the Preface?

The authors describe being asked what was required of them for a general examination—jogging—and then contrasting it with playing cricket and squash as different forms of preparation.

How does the Preface distinguish adaptation from adaptability and from causal explanations?

It separates adaptation as a causal claim from the broader capacity to act flexibly across environments and social contexts, warning against confusing functional purpose and origin.

What example is used to illustrate separating context from the ultimate origin of adaptation?

High-altitude living is used: the physiological capacity enabling adaptation is discussed as unlikely to have been caused by the high-altitude requirements themselves, since capacities evolved earlier in lowland environments.

Oct 16, 2026

Uploaded by McQueen