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While most of us live our lives according to the working week, we did not evolve to be bound by industrial schedules, nor did the food we eat. Despite this, we eat the products of industrialization and often suffer as a consequence. This book considers aspects of changing human nutrition from evolutionary and social perspectives. It considers what a 'natural' human diet might be, how it has been shaped across evolutionary time and how we have adapted to changing food availability. The transition from hunter-gatherer and the rise of agriculture through to the industrialisation and globalisation of diet are explored. Far from being adapted to a 'Stone Age' diet, humans can consume a vast range of foodstuffs. However, being able to eat anything does not mean that we should eat everything, and therefore engagement with the evolutionary underpinnings of diet and factors influencing it are key to better public health practice.

This volume considers evidence concerning prehistoric migration, and colonial, regional and global processes in the production of health change in the Asia-Pacific region. This cohesive volume will be of interest to graduates and researchers specializing in public/global health and biocultural anthropology.

Seasonal variability in food abundance affects what primates eat, how they search for food, how and when they are active, and as a consequence, their body size, social life and reproductive timing. This book examines how seasonality might have also affected human evolution particularly in the transition to the savannah.

Bringing together a variety of accomplished dental researchers, this valuable reference source focuses on methodology required for the study of modern dental anthropology. It comprises the most up-to-date scientific methods in use today. Written for graduate students, academic researchers and professionals in social and life sciences and clinicians.

Spider monkeys are traditionally very difficult to study in the wild, but there has been an expansion in research being carried out on this genus in the past decade. This book is an assimilation of both published and previously unpublished research on spider monkeys, for academic researchers and graduate students.

Bringing together every major expert in the field, this book is the first detailed collation of the evolution, ecology and conservation of the pitheciines, some of the oddest and least-known monkeys in South America. It provides authoritative topic reviews and insights into current research that encompass all four pitheciine genera.

The follow-up companion to The Anthropology of Modern Human Teeth (Cambridge, 1997), this volume focuses on applied dental research. It starts with a cutting-edge section on genetics, and continues with a series of case studies demonstrating the utility of morphological analysis in fossil hominin and more recent populations (and individuals).

Skeletonized human remains are often the only biological evidence for interpreting violent interactions in the past (by bioarchaeologists) and the present (by forensic anthropologists). Experts in bone analysis reveal how bone trauma is reconstructed. Case studies highlight methods for reading the bones and interpreting the violent encounters that took place.

Reconstructing the paleobiology of fossil non-human primates, this book draws a detailed picture of ancient primate communities, including contemporary animals and plants. With information on how fossils are formed and their role in inferring evolutionary processes, it is a unique resource for undergraduate and graduate students interested in fossil primates.

Exploring developments in palaeoanthropology since the discovery of Australopithecus africanus in 1924, this book is a valuable companion for students and researchers of human origins. It covers a range of key themes, from the earliest hominin fossils to the origins of bipedalism and the evolution and dispersal of modern humans.

Compiling osteological research from Rapanui remains, this book demonstrates how the application of modern techniques utilised in skeletal biology research can be employed to address questions of human population origins and microevolution. Evidence is presented in an accessible manner that allows researchers to critically analyse current evidence of Rapanui prehistory.

Reviewing and expanding upon recent research into lemur behavioural traits, this comparative study analyses links between lemurs, primates and humans. Suitable for both experts and non-experts, this book attempts to break the conceptual walls between primate taxa to encourage further research into ancestral traits between primates and humans.

Uniting contributions from international experts, this first ever volume on the Cheirogaleidae family reviews their behaviour, physiology, ecology, genetics and biogeography in one comprehensive volume. Featuring previously unpublished research, this unique book will encourage further exploration of the dwarf and mouse lemurs of Madagascar.

The how-to guide for ethnoprimatological research, offering an insight into the preparation, design, implementation, and analysis of the latest research projects in the field. This book tackles the challenges and complexities involved in mixed-methods research, appealing to students and researchers in ethnoprimatology, primatology, anthropology, and conservation biology.

Anthropologists study the changing shapes of the skeleton during growth and across evolutionary time. This volume brings together examples of how novel methods and approaches can be used to expand our understanding of skeletal variation by combining knowledge from the fields of developmental biology, genetics, histology, morphometrics and imaging.

The first edition is a seminal work on dental morphology. Now revised and updated to include developments in the field, this synthesis of the global variation in tooth structure in recent human populations is invaluable for students of dental anthropology, bioarchaeology, forensic anthropology, paleoanthropology, dentistry, and genetics.

Readers will appreciate how hunter-gatherer societies have changed through time in ways that actively resist the notion of an evolutionary drive toward food production. This work creates a theoretically grounded 'bioarchaeology of hunter-gatherers' that advances our knowledge of lifestyles that dominated the human experience for most of prehistory.

The first of its kind collection and analysis of human health data recorded from the skeletal remains of 15,119 individuals at 101 localities across the continent of Europe. The book will interest a wide range of scholars and students across the medical and the social sciences.

This book is a holistic treatment of primate conservation research. Featuring a range of personal narratives, researchers reveal their motivations and strategies for confronting the threats pushing primates towards extinction. It will appeal to anyone interested in wildlife conservation who wants to learn about research methods and motivations.

An interdisciplinary perspective on preindustrial agriculture that combines insights from ecology and demography, this book explores the strengths and limitations of traditional farming. A valuable resource for graduate students and researchers in biological, physical and cultural anthropology, natural resource management, agriculture and ecology.

Long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) have a wide geographical distribution and extensively overlap with human societies across southeast Asia, regularly utilizing the edges of secondary forest and inhabiting numerous anthropogenic environments, including temple grounds, cities and farmlands. Yet despite their apparent ubiquity across the region, there are striking gaps in our understanding of long-tailed macaque population ecology. This timely volume, a key resource for primatologists, anthropologists and conservationists, underlines the urgent need for comprehensive population studies on common macaques. Providing the first detailed look at research on this underexplored species, it unveils what is currently known about the population of M. fascicularis, explores the contexts and consequences of human-macaque sympatry and discusses the innovative programs being initiated to resolve human-macaque conflict across Asia. Spread throughout the book are boxed case studies that supplement the chapters and give a valuable insight into specific field studies on wild M. fascicularis populations.

Written for students and researchers interested in how primates, including ourselves, evolved, Primate and Human Evolution explores evolutionary anthropology from a broad comparative perspective, and presents a new model of human origins that does not depend solely on global climatic change.

Colobine monkeys are a frequently overlooked group of primates, yet they exhibit extraordinary behavioural and ecological diversity and are highly threatened. Bringing together international experts, this book summarizes current knowledge, appealing to researchers and graduate students in primatology, biological anthropology and conservation.

Taking a comparative approach, this book investigates the ways in which obesity and its susceptibilities are framed in science and policy and how they might work better. Providing a clear, authoritative voice on the debate, the author builds on early work to engage further in ecological and complexity thinking in obesity. Many of the models that have emerged since obesity became a population-level issue are examined, including the energy balance model, and models used to examine human body fatness from a range of perspectives including evolutionary, anthropological, environmental, and political viewpoints. The book is ideal for those working on, or interested in, obesity science, health policy, health economics, evolutionary medicine, medical sociology, nutrition and public health who want to understand the shifts that have taken place in obesity science, policy, and intervention in the past forty years.

"Evidence for cardiovascular diseases found with ancient skeletons and mummies shows that they are not just a modern phenomenon. Presenting relevant case studies and methodologies, this volume will appeal to researchers and graduate students in bioarchaeology, medical anthropology and medicine as well as anybody interested in the history of disease"--