Biological Anthropology and Aging

Perspectives on Human Variation Over the Life Span

Edited by Douglas E. Crews and Ralph M. Garruto

Emphasizes population studies of living and ancient humans
Uses models traditionally unique to anthropological research

Biological Anthropology and Aging

Perspectives on Human Variation Over the Life Span

Edited by Douglas E. Crews and Ralph M. Garruto

Description

This volume is designed to explore evolutionary, cross-cultural, physiological, environmental, and pathological influences on variation in human biological ageing. With use of models traditionally unique to anthropological research, contributors to this edited volume approach human biological ageing as a heterogeneous and variable process. An explicit emphasis on evolutionary biology and human variation results in a renewed perspective on human biological ageing as the end result of a set of co-adapted genetic complexes that were associated with successful growth, development, reproduction, and parenting of offspring during our species' evolutionary history. However, while examining human life span and life history parameters as population level phenomena, the book also emphasizes human phenotypic plasticity as the key to understanding human biological ageing. This broad evolutionary perspective on human biological ageing and life history patterns is unique in biological gerontology, a field generally reductionist in method and theory in keeping with current trends in biomedicine.

Biological Anthropology and Aging

Perspectives on Human Variation Over the Life Span

Edited by Douglas E. Crews and Ralph M. Garruto

Foreword, P.T. Baker
Prologue: Human Aging - A Paradigm of Transdisciplinary Research, D.E. Crews and R.M. Garruto
Part I: Introduction and Background
1: Aging as a worldwide phenomenon, T.P. Miles, J.A. Brody
Part II Evolutionary Biology of Aging and Senescence
2: Human population biology and the evolution of human aging, J.W. Wood, S.C. Weeks, G.R. Bentley, K.M. Weiss
3: The genetics of longevity in humans, T. Turner, M.L. Weiss
4: Cousin marriage and the X-chromosome: Evolution of longevity and language, S. Katz, D. Armstrong
Part III Populations, Environment, and Morbidity
5: Primate gerontology: An emerging discipline, C.J. DeRousseau
6: Chronic degenerative diseases and aging, D.E. Crews, L.M. Gerber
7: Human immune system aging: Approaches, examples, and ideas, P.J. Mayer
8: Neuronal aging and age-related disorders of the human nervous system, M.J. Strong, R.M. Garruto
9: Nutrition and aging: Intraindividual variation, W. Stini
10: Skeletal changes in human aging, C.C. Plato, K.M. Fox, J.D. Tobin
11: Fat, lipid and blood pressure changes in the adult years, S.M. Garn
12: Aging and blood pressure, G.D. James, M.A. Pecker
13: Aging and adaptation to the environment, C. Beall
14: Modeling the variability in longitudinal patterns of aging, L.J. Brant, C.D. Pearson
15: Morphological indicators of skeletal age: Implications for paleodemography and paleogerontology, S.R. Loth, M.Y. Iscan
16: Role of the National Institute on Aging, P.B. Eveleth
Epilogue: Human aging - The scientific relevance of transdisciplinary approaches, R.M. Garruto, D.E. Crews

Biological Anthropology and Aging

Perspectives on Human Variation Over the Life Span

Edited by Douglas E. Crews and Ralph M. Garruto

Author Information

Edited by Douglas E. Crews, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Preventive Medicine, Ohio State University, and Ralph M. Garruto, Supervisory Research Biologist, National Institute of Health, Bethesda, Maryland