Human adaptability : a history and compendium of research in the International Biological Programme / K.J. Collins and J.S. Weiner.

Date:
1977
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Credit: Human adaptability : a history and compendium of research in the International Biological Programme / K.J. Collins and J.S. Weiner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The relevance of human ecology to the IBP is epitomized in the preamble to the Proposals for International Research, Project D, Human Adaptability (April 1962) and the Guide to the Human Adaptability Section of IBP (IBP Handbook No. 1, 1966) (2): — It is fitting that the International Biological Programme should include a section aimed at the world-wide comparative study of human adaptability. The IBP as a whole is concerned essentially with the functional relationship of living things to their environments, in the sea, in fresh water and on the land; it is conceived as a world-wide ecological study of communities of plants and animals: those still existing in relatively natural habitats and those in more disturbed or artificial conditions. An analogous approach can be made to the ecology of mankind. At this stage of human history vast changes are affecting the distribution, population density, and ways of life of human communities all over the world. The enormous advances in technology make it certain that many communities which have been changing slowly or not at all will relatively soon be totally transformed. We are in a period when the biology of the human race is undergoing continuous change measured in terms of health, fitness and genetic constitution. The International Biological Programme provides a great opportunity to take stock of human adaptability as it is manifested at the present time in a wide variety of terrains, climates and social groups, to deepen our knowledge of its biological basis and to apply this knowledge to problems of health and welfare. To do all this satisfactorily, for communities ranging from the very simple to the highly industrialised, requires an integrated approach and an application of methods drawn from many fields, particularly those of human environmental physiology, population genetics and develop¬ mental biology aided by auxiliary disciplines, for example in medicine, anthropology, ecology and demography. It will be noticed that this declaration of aims lays stress inter alia on the comparative study of human populations inhabiting a very wide variety of habitats. This comparative approach had a twofold significance. Scientifically it represented an important way of discovering on a world-wide basis how far similar environ¬ ments call for similar responses from populations of differing genetic constitution and how far differing habitats may require differing responses from groups of similar genotypes. The issue was therefore to discover how far variations in genetic constitution or in long-term exposure impose limitations and modifications to phenotypic response. The IBP/НА studies aimed at elucidating the interaction of nature and nurture on the physiological, morphological and developmental characters of human populations on a world scale. Work of this kind, the essence of human population biology, demands international effort, scientifically and operationally. The IBP succeeded in this aim, it is fair to say, beyond expectations. To achieve the aim of population comparison on a world scale, raised the problem of the great disparity of resources in money and personnel between different countries. Operationally, therefore, this demanded a framework that would provide the opportunity for participation even by nations with comparatively poor resources. That such a framework was established was one of the results of the crucial international CIBA symposium, held in December 1962 in London, and recalled more fully below. One feature of the ecological approach of the HA section merits special mention. The IBP as a whole expressed a strong concern with 'natural' ecosystems and those subject to the minimal human interference. A special effort was mounted by the Conservation (CT) Section to identify and list such ecosystems for immediate study during the IBP (and beyond) by persuading governments to bring these areas within conservation schemes. In the HA section, in an analogous way, emphasis was placed on the need to intensify the study of simple societies still living under difficult 'natural' conditions. Such groups would provide object lessons of the actual adaptability achievable by man when relying largely on his biological endowment. The widespread belief that IBP represented probably a 3