Chapter Summary

Biological anthropology studies the human species, past and present from the perspective of evolutionary processes, change, and adaptation. To understand how these affected our ancestors, we have developed skills that allow us to squeeze an amazing amount of information out of the meager skeletal remains that those ancestors left us. These skills are now being increasingly recognized and used by law enforcement agencies in the identification and analysis of skeletal remains of missing persons and accident and murder victims. Forensic anthropology is a fast-growing specialty within out field.

Our evolutionary perspective can also be useful in more abstract ways. By understanding the nature of our adaptations as a species, we may evaluate some of our behaviors and practices in light of the recent cultural environment we have made for ourselves. We find that some of our cultural adaptations may be out of step with our biological ones. Using the evolutionary viewpoint to look at daily biological rhythms, sleep patterns, the nature of our breathing, diseases that affect us, our diet, and our exercise habits—among other aspects of our lives—may enable us to adopt behaviors that are more in line with how our species is actually adapted and, in so doing, improve our lives.

Biological anthropology may also be applied to modern global issues such as overpopulation and emerging diseases (see Chapter 13.) Even something as seemingly removed from anthropology as global warming can be examined from anthropology’s holistic and evolutionary perspectives.

In the end, however, it must be noted that, to be useful and important, knowledge need not have a practical, concrete application. There is nothing wrong with the idea of knowledge for its own sake, and, certainly, learning about our species—where we came from, what processes brought about our evolution, who we are and where we fit in the natural world—should be important to us as individuals and as members of our own society and the society of all the world’s peoples.

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