Biological Anthropology and Aging Perspectives on Human Variation over the Life Span

by Crews, Douglas E.; Garruto, Ralph M.

• ISBN13: 9780195068290
• ISBN10: 0195068297
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1994-04-14
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This timely volume explores evolutionary, cross-cultural, physiological, environmental, and pathological influences on variation in human biological aging. Chapters by leading experts use models traditionally unique to anthropological research in order to illuminate human biological aging as a heterogeneous and variable process. By explicitly emphasizing evolutionary biology and human variation, the book presents the fascinating perspective of human biological aging as the end result of a set of co-adapted genetic complexes associated with successful growth, development, reproduction, and parenting of offspring. While examining human life span and life-history parameters as population-level phenomena, the book also emphasizes human phenotypic plasticity as key to understanding aging. This broad evolutionary perspective is unique in biological gerontology, a field that is often reductionist in method and theory. The book is sure to appeal to students, teachers, and researchers of geriatrics, gerontology, biology and anthropology of aging, and human population biology.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Prologue: Human Aging--A Paradigm of Transdisciplinary Research

Introduction and Background

Aging as a Worldwide Phenomenon

Evolutionary Biology of Aging and Senescence

Human Population Biology and the Evolution of Human Aging

The Genetics of Longevity in Humans

Cousin Marriage and the X-Chromosome: Evolution of Longevity and Language

Populations, Environment, and Morbidity

Primate Gerontology: An Emerging Discipline

Chronic Degenerative Diseases and Aging

Human Immune System Aging

Neuronal Aging and Age-Related Disorders of the Human Nervous System

Nutrition and Aging: Intraindividual Variation

Skeletal Changes in Human Aging

Fat, Lipid and Blood Pressure Changes in the Adult Years

Aging and Blood Pressure

Aging and Adaptation to the Environment

Methods for Aging Research and Ongoing Programs

Modeling the Variability in Longitudinal Patterns of Aging

Morphological Indictors of Skeletal Age

Role of the National Institute on Aging

Epilogue: Human Aging--The Scientific Relevance of Transdisciplinary Approaches

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