Reflections on Adaptive and Ecological Models

Human population biology is largely and appropriately an anthropological endeavor in which attempts are made to understand why our species is so adept at adjusting to change. The question is of obvious relevance, not only for understanding our evolutionary past and the factors contributing to present diversity, but also in trying to comprehend the limits of our biological capacity to adapt to the rapid rate of contemporary change. As chapters in this volume have demonstrated, the answers to such a question are not derived from narrow inquiry within a single area of biology. If adaptation is broadly concerned with adjustments aiding in biological function, then assessment must include an integration of responses that facilitate a population's health, nutritional status, behavioral functional capacity, and reproductive performance (Baker 1984, p. 2). Nor can inquiry remain isolated within biology. To ignore the rich diversity of behavioral responses to constraints, and the consequences these have on human biology, dramatically limits our understanding of the dynamics of human adaptability. Human behavior is strongly molded by culture and subject frequently to socioeconomic and ecological conditions beyond the control of any individual. Therefore, although behavior serves as our primary means of adapting, it is guided by cultural and social agendas that do not necessarily support biologically the well-being of all segments of the society equally. These comments emphasize the complexity in processes of human adaptability , and the necessity of a transdisciplinary approach to scientific problems. If solutions are to be found, they will have to rely on analytical procedures that can (1) incorporate a broad information base drawn from human population biology, social science, and environmental science, (2) emphasize interconnectivity among multiple variables operating in complex systems, and yet (3) reduce the complexity to a consideration of critical variables in order that the problem be capable of solution (Thomas et al. 1979). Since our capabilities for predicting most forms of change are limited, it seems that analytical techniques that can guide us to appropriate problems, and that can anticipate alternative consequences of a change might contribute significantly. In