One of the difficulties with managing environmental and toxic health risks is that serious consequences of new cultural practices are often not apparent until years or even decades later. By then, of course, these practices are fully embedded in the cultural system, and huge financial interests are at stake. Today, cultural practices, probably as never before, are having an impact on human gene pools. It remains to be seen just what the long-term effects on the human species as a whole will be, but it is undeniable that poor people and people of color bear a disproportionate burden for these practices.
In addition to the problems human cultures are creating through changing the environment, new challenges have blossomed from cultural advances. The values of wealthy consumers living in industrialized countries have spread to the inhabitants of poorer and developing countries, influencing their expectations and dreams. Of course, the resources necessary to maintain a luxurious standard of living are limited. Instead of globalizing a standard of living that the world’s natural resources cannot meet, it is time for all of humanity to use today’s global connections to learn how to live within the carrying capacity of the earth.
We are a social species with origins on the African continent over 5 million years ago. Over the course of our evolutionary history, we came to inhabit the entire globe. From cities, to deserts, to mountain tops, to grassy
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Plains, to rich tropical forests, human cultures in these varied places became distinct from one another. In each environment, human groups devised their own specific beliefs and practices to meet the challenges of survival. In the future, dramatic changes in cultural values will be required if our species is to thrive. “New, improved” values might, for example, include a worldview that sees humanity as part of the world, rather than as master over it, as it is in many of the world’s cultures today. Included, too, might be a sense of social responsibility that recognizes and affirms respect among ethnic groups as well as our collective stewardship for the earth we inhabit.
Our continued survival will depend on our ability to cultivate positive social connections among all kinds of people and to recognize the ways we impact one another in a world interconnected by the forces of globalization. Together, we can use the adaptive faculty of culture, the hallmark of our species, to ensure our continued survival.
1. Considering that population size has been expanding throughout our evolutionary history, why is this continuing trend a challenge of critical proportions for humans today?
2. The anthropological distinction between illness and disease provides a way to separate biological states from cultural elaborations given to those biological states. Can you think of some examples of illness without disease and disease without illness?
3. What do you think of the notion of letting a fever run its course instead of taking a medicine to lower it? Do these
Paleolithic prescriptions suggested by evolutionary medicine run counter to your own medical beliefs and practices?
4. Are there any examples in your experience of how the growth process or human reproductive physiology helped you adapt to environmental stressors? Does this ability help humans from an evolutionary perspective?
5. Do you see examples of structural violence in your community that make some individuals more vulnerable to disease than others?
Ehrlich, P. R., & Ehrlich, A. H. (2008). The dominant animal: Human evolution and the environment. Washington, DC: Island.
From the scientists leading global efforts to contain human population size, this book traces the ways humans have modified the environment and themselves over the course of our evolutionary history in order to ensure our future.
Ellison, P. T. (2003). On fertile ground: A natural history of human reproduction. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
A leader in the field of reproductive ecology, Ellison demonstrates the extreme responsiveness of human reproductive hormones to a variety of environmental stimuli including the changing human-made environments of today.
Farmer, P. (2001). Infections and inequalities: The modern plagues. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Paul Farmer, continuing the tradition of the physician-anthropologist, traces the relationship between structural violence and infectious disease, demonstrating that the world’s poor bear a disproportionate burden of disease.
Helman, C. B. (2003). Culture, health, and illness: An introduction for health professionals. New York: Butterworth Heinemann Medical.
This well-referenced book provides a good overview and introduction to medical anthropology. Though written with health professionals in mind, it is very accessible for North American students who have firsthand experience with biomedicine, the dominant medical system of North America.
McElroy, A., & Townsend, P. K. (2003). Medical anthropology in ecological perspective. Boulder, CO: Westview.
Now in its fourth edition, this text lays out ecological approaches in medical anthropology, including biocultural, environmental, and evolutionary perspectives. In addition to providing a clear theoretical perspective, it offers excellent examples of applied work by medical anthropologists to improve health globally.
Trevathan, W., Smith, E. O., & McKenna, J. J. (Eds.). (1999). Evolutionary medicine. London: Oxford University Press. This comprehensive edited volume collects primary research conducted by leaders in the field of evolutionary medicine. Examples from throughout the human life cycle range from sexually transmitted diseases to cancer.
World History
