How Humans Adapt: A Biocultural Odyssey . Donald J. Ortner

PHYSICAL model should experience a decline in genetic variability but an increase in rii. The regression of heterozygosity on distance from centroid method of analysis was applied to six human population samples, of which two were large tribal groups in South America and South Africa and four were examples of local demes. This method indicates a comfortable fit between social structure, ethnohistory, and gene frequency distributions. There is an indication that except for the Yanamamo, the regional gene frequency distributions are largely generated by local population structure instead of gene flow with populations outside the region. This chapter does much to dispel some of the simplistic assumptions made by evolutionary biologists concerning local population structure and its evolutionary significance. In the final chapter, “Of Clocks and Clades, or a Story of Old Told by Genes of Now,” Ayala reviews some of the biochemical techniques that are utilized to establish phylogenetic relationships between taxa. He reviews the application of techniques such as DNA hybridization, amino acid analyses, immunology (microcomplement fixation), and electrophoresis to the construction of molecular evolutionary based phylogenies. Ayala explains that DNA and nucleic acids (termed informational macromolecules) provide a more powerful reconstruction of evolutionary history than morphology, which is further removed from the hereditary information. Ayala argues that it is possible to utilize molecular genetic data as an “approximate wolutionary clock.” However, in order to avoid substantial errors, it is necessary to invoke rczwrage rates obtained from many proteins covering a vast time expanse. T h e more recent the divergence of any two species, the more likely it is that the observed molecular change will depart from the average evolutionary rate. Given millions of years, periods of fast evolution and slow evolutionary change within a single lineage will tend to balance each other. T h e usefulness of evolutionary clocks to primate phylogenies are limited because of the relatively short time of divergence of some of the taxa. In sum, this is a solid, well-conceived compendium on evolutionary biology. The interdisciplinary impact of this volume could have been enhanced by the publication of the transcript of the discussion following each presentation. In this way, the reader would be privy to the conceptual and methodological differences between the contributors, debated in

713

an open forum. Although most of the chapters are of tangential interest to anthropologists. the final two contributions, one by Harpending and Ward and the other by Ayala. are thoughtprovoking and worth reading.

How H u m a n s Adapt: A Biocultural Odyssey. Smithsonian International Symposia Series. Donald J . Ortnrr, ed. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1983. xxi + 560 pp. $19.95 (cloth): $9.95 paper. Alan Goodman University of Connecticut Health Center Hour Humnris Adapt: A Riocuitural Otly.w~,y presents the proceedings of the Smithsonian Institution‘s Seventh International Symposium. held November 8-12. 1981. As stated in the foreword by S. Dillon Ripley, secretary of the Smithsonian, these symposia are intended to be interdisciplinary. Data and contributions are drawn from the social and biological scienres and the humanities. T h e level of writing i n this volume is varied but meets the stated aims of being appropriate for the academic community and a “serious reading public.” Donald Ortner. curator of physical anthropology at the Smithsonian. conceived of the idea for the symposium and edited these proceedings. Ortnrr and his associates at the Smithsonian have produced an attractive volume at a reasonable price. l h r book was published in less than a year and a half after the symposium. It contains some editorial mistakes, particularly in referencing, but these do not detract from the overall quality of the book. T h e focus of the book is embodied in thc title. How do humans adapt? Major subsidiary questions concern ( I ) change in mode of adaptation from past to present and future, and (2) the interplay between biological and cultural evolution and adaptation. T h e editor has succeedrd in bringing together a diversity of views on the evolution of human adaptive systems with explicit relevance to the future. This is an important first. But despite an eminent group of writers, the selections are generally of only average quality. Few are among the better writings in this area: most of these authors have said i t better somewhere else. Thus the volume does not represent a great advance in answering the questions posed. T h e core of this volume is eightern “essays.”

744

A M E R ICA N .4 N THR 0P O L 0 G I S T

[ 8 6 . 19841

Each essay is followed by from one to three differentiate between “sociocultural” and “commentaries” and all but two of the essays are “sociogenic” selection. Chagnon. rather than followed by open discussion. Essays average ap- attempting to distinguish between these exproximately 20 pages in length while the com- planations. replies that “I happen to think the mentaries are much shorter, ranging from 1 to 7 distinction is absurd” (p. 100). Chagnon does pages. A prologue by the late Rene Dubos and not discuss why he thinks this is so. The difan epilogue by W . S. Dillon, director of the ference is a real one with real implications, Smithsonian’s Office of Symposia and Seminars, especially in more complex societies. L.. L . brackets the main contributions. The prologue, Cavalli-Sforza provides some insights into these reported to be Dubos’s last essay, is as clearly distinctions in the following essay. He reviews written, insightful, and optimistic as all his studies in cultural transmission and selection, writings. He concentrates on the importance of drawing upon work by himself and his colleague evaluation and anticipation in adaptation. M. W. Feldman. Ortner expands upon CavalliYouth unemployment is cited as a problem that Sforza’s discussion on the greater flexibility of is not often considered to be of utmost concern. cultural versus genetic adaptations. F. Hassan Dubos considers this to be among our society’s provides an overview of the demographic evolumost important problems because of the ”hid- tion of human populations, and N. Scrimshaw den costs” in inhibition of social need to be a does the same for human nutrition. valued and productive member of society. He is Subsequent selections concentrate on aspects optimistic about the future because he believes of the present human condition in both rich and that we will anticipate problems and find solu- poor nations, with a view toward problems, tions to them before they become major threats such as overpopulation and nuclear war. that to humanity. may affect al! of us in the future. These contriThe opening and closing essays are by philo- butions range from concentrations on populasophers. S. Toulmin begins with a discussion of tion growth, mental and physical health, energy divergent views on the naturalness of the present production, and urban environments to the human conditions (pp. 11-26). M. Migley ends future of democracy, ethnics, and educational with an essay on excessive individualism as a systems. There is great diversity of topical threat to our future (pp. 517-532). Between material. Most frustrating is what has not been includthese essays are contributions by, among others, biological and cultural anthropologists, arche- ed or resolved in a volume with this diversity ologists, human geneticists, historians, and and size. The question of who is adapting is economists. Not counting discussions, 44 often addressed. Many contributors note the scholars contributed to 5 2 selections. Early problems inherent in an individual-only level of selections provide overviews of various aspects of analysis, but there is little to demonstrate how adaptation in primates and preagricultural and individuals adapt. A discussion of psychologipreindustrial human societies. Greater concern cal, physiological, and developmental adaptafor biolopcal parameters is found in these selec- tions would help bridge the dichotomy of tions. J. and C. Lancaster present a well-orga- genetic versus cultural modes of selection. nized and referenced comparison of human and Stress, either psychological or physiological, is nonhuman primate data on reproductive be- considered in only one selection (M. Cohen’s havior and biology. Data, derived mainly from commentary on Ortner’s essay). How can adapthe free-ranging primates and the lKung are tation be studied without establishing the ways used to highlight the uniqueness of humans’ that individuals may react to stressful condi“secret” estrous cycle and its importance for the tions? Much is made of differences in implied meanevolution of continuous provisioning and investment of both parents. J. Nee1 presents a review ings of adaptation. Ortner intends it to be a of multidisciplinary studies carried out by him value-free concept, but others view adaptation and his colleagues with the Yanomama. N. as a positive (improve quality of living) or Chagnon adds a commentary on the sociobio- negative (accommodate to inhumane condilogical implications of these studies. He presents tions) process. These are important differences data on an axe fight in a Yanomama village. In- to air and resolve. However, this volume does dividuals on each side of the fight have a higher not progress much beyond identification of lincoefficient of relatedness than do individuals in guistic differences. Little effort is made to prothe village as a whole. In the following discus- vide a common basis for the evaluation of the sion Toulmin questions whether these data can success of biological and cultural adjustments

PH Y S I C A I . on various levels. over different time periods. and in relation to a set of goals or adaptive criteria. In summary, there is great diversity in topic and quality among the selections in this volume. While 1 suspect that few will find this book as a whole to be invaluable to the development of their research interests, there may be enough worthwhile chapters to justify its purchase. The volume may be most useful in teaching, as it provides a suitable introduction to studies of adaptation on a population and cultural level for the nonprofessional. It is worth consideration in a course on human adaptation when the instructor intends to move beyond traditional concerns with physiological, developmental, and genetic responses to environmental stressors. I t may be best suited for more interdisciplinary, applied, and problem-oriented courses.

Algeny, Algeny, Aigeny. Jeremy Ripin. New York: Viking Press, 1983. xii + 298 pp. $14.75 (cloth). John Buettner-Janusch New York, New York The title of this peculiar book is not the cry of some lost interplanetary traveler yearning for his home planet. It is the Ciceronian cry of the author who wishes to impress the reader with what he conceives to be a new approach to understanding the universe, or at least the nature of biological life on the planet earth. Algeny is a word coined by the distinguished president of the Rockefeller University. Coined to pair with the word alchemy which is taken to mean the transformation of materials, algeny means biological transformations. And it is the author’s contention that the new world into which we are being ushered by something he calls the biological revolution is one in which the transformation of biological materials will play the key role. The author believes that genesplicing techniques as well as other newly developed biological engineering techniques presage a “new era.” What we gain from this revolution is not only a control over our biological destinies but also a rejection of the world view that is often named after Charles Darwin. The Darwinian world view, the Darwinian explanation of biological events, according to this author, is no longer to be considered valid or even useful.

745

Darwinism was an appropriate theoretical model when the world was in a state of aggressive and developing industrialism and capitalism was growing into its mature form. But the world is no longer to be viewed in that way; the biological revolution, which is a way of characterizing the implications of the great advances in what is called genetic engineering, has changed all that. The author does not clearly tell us what it is that it has been changed into. No clear delineation of the world view that algeny implies is forthcoming. Rifkin tells us, although he makes no clear effort to demonstrate i t , that the Darwinian world view is not adequate for the emerging biotechnology, as it was for the no longer dominant pyrotechnology. Rifkin‘s rhetoric and sloganeering are nowhere buttressed by an attempt to understand or for that matter to explain Darwinism to the reader. His comments of the views of Darwin and the general understanding of Darwinism, especially on pages 57-59, are grotesque and uninformed. On one point Rifkin cannot be faulted. He notes that the world view that he equates with the Darwinian was quite compatible with the Industrial Revolution and its ideology. Indeed he notes, and others have made the case before this, that Darwinism flourished precisely because it was so attuned to the emerging industrial era. Now that we are leaving the industrial era other ideological underpinnings are required. In the chapter labeled “The Darwinian Sunset” Rifkin argues, with carefully selected quotations, that Darwin’s day is past. He begins by claiming that evolutionary theory has been enshrined as the centerpiece of our educational system (p. 112). Anyone who makes a claim of that sort clearly is not in possession of the facts about public education, or private education for that matter. He then cites a revelation attributed to Colin Patterson. Patterson, paleontologist at the British Museum, apparently woke up one morning to find that he no longer believed in the theory of evolution. And he quotes Grasse and a few other writers who have e x pressed doubts about the validity of Darwinism. He mistakenly takes a large number of other writers who have been busy in recent years refining and analyzing aspects of the synthetic theory of evolution as supporting the notion that the theory in all aspects is invalid. This is nonsense, and nonsense uttered with flamboyant rhetoric. In a long chapter, “Rethinking and Remaking Life,” Rifkin demonstrates a rather large