Human biological variation in the phenotype is the cornerstone of modern human biology, evolutionary anthropology, and related studies of human evolution. Minimal dialogue, however, has considered human milk to be part of this phenotypic variation. This may reflect researcher bias‐mental models oriented around commercial infant formula and homogenized cow's milk, both of which present milk composition

To examine the pace of secular changes of selected body measurements and proportions of children and adolescents from Kolkata (India), between 1952–1966 and 1999–2011 in the context of differences between the sexes.

Glucocorticoids are one component of human milk (HM) potentially affecting offspring development. Previous studies have identified various maternal, obstetric and socioeconomic characteristics that are associated with HM cortisol concentration but the literature is still scarce concerning these determinants in human populations. We aimed to identify which factors are linked with HM cortisol concentration

Communities in southwest Madagascar have co‐evolved with a hypervariable environment and climate. The paleoclimate record reflects major fluctuations in climatic conditions over the course of Holocene human settlement. Archeological evidence indicates short‐term occupations of sites, suggesting that frequent residential mobility and flexible subsistence strategies have been central features of life

Inflammatory cytokines are key regulators of inflammation, but current measurement approaches require venous blood to quantify low circulating concentrations associated with chronic, low‐grade inflammation. This article describes a highly sensitive multiplex immunoassay protocol for the measurement of IL6, IL8, IL10, and TNFα in finger stick dried blood spot (DBS) samples.

To evaluate the direct and indirect effects of family characteristics and the perceived neighborhood environment on obesity risks among schoolchildren.

Human sexual dimorphism is frequently assessed through skull and pelvic size and shape. Researchers suggest that climatic variation and the associated stress may be significant factors in sexual dimorphism's etiology. However, little research has specifically investigated climatic effects on nonmeteric skeletal indicators of sex. To further appreciate the plasticity of human biology, a comparative

Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people are increasingly visible in U.S. communities and in national media. With this increased visibility, access to gender affirming healthcare is also on the rise, particularly for urban youth. Political backlash and entrenchment in a gender binary, however, continue to marginalize TGD people, increasing risk for health disparities. The 2016 National Institute

Skin pigmentation is both a highly variable and highly visible human phenotypic trait. Investigations into the biology and origins of this variation have been the focus of research in the fields of dermatology, anthropology, and forensic science, among others. This manuscript explores how much of what we know about the biology, genetics, and evolutionary origins of pigmentation has been strongly influenced

For about 30 years, including 20 years as Co‐Director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Studies (1998‐2018) Michael Tomasello led an observational and experimental search for the fundamental differences in developmental psychology between humans and our closest living cousins the chimpanzee and bonobo. This book is a summary of the research methods and findings. In a few words, Tomasello

Public health practitioners and social scientists frequently compare height against one‐size‐fits‐all standards of human growth to assess well‐being, deprivation, and disease risk. However, underlying differences in height can make some naturally tall populations appear well‐off by universal standards, even though they live in severe states of deprivation. In this article, I describe the worldwide

Predicted maturity offset, defined as time before peak height velocity (PHV) is increasingly used as an indicator of maturity status in studies of physical activity, fitness, and sport.

In this article, we test theoretical pathways leading to and resulting from periodontal disease to better understand how periodontal disease, which is measurable in both past and present populations, integrates biocultural context and affects whole‐body physiology.

To assess trends in growth in different developmental periods and trends in developmental tempo in Polish boys between 1966 and 2012.

Objectives: Human biologists are increasingly interested in measuring and comparing physical activities in different societies. Sedentary behavior, which refers to time spent sitting or lying down while awake, is a large component of daily 24 hours movement patterns in humans and has been linked to poor health outcomes such as risk of all‐cause and cardiovascular mortality, independently of physical

Studies suggest a positive relationship between 25‐hydroxy vitamin D (25(OH)D)) and resting metabolic rate (RMR). We aimed to determine whether this relationship was also true of populations with very low vitamin D status.

Killer cell immunoglobulin‐like receptor (KIR) genes with high polymorphism at genotypic levels are important in providing immune defense and have been expanded towards human population genetics. The aim of this study is to provide supporting information from this new biomarker to strengthen the comprehension of genetic history of the complex Malay population.

Autoimmune and inflammatory disorder (AIID) prevalence appears to be increasing in all but the world’s poorest regions and countries. Autoimmune diseases occur when there is a breakdown in processes that regulate inflammation and self‐recognition by immune cells. Very few field‐based studies have been conducted among Indigenous populations and underserved communities with limited access to medical

Establish the variability of C‐reactive protein (CRP) within a population of first‐generation immigrants living in the United States. Prior work has theorized that individuals with high levels of childhood pathogen exposure may have lower CRP levels in adulthood, and therefore that for these individuals, CRP may not be as accurate an index of chronic disease risk related to low‐level inflammation as

Remarkably, the specifics of sleep along the human lineage have been slow to emerge, which is surprising given our distinct mental and behavioral capacity and the importance of sleep for individual health and cognitive performance. Largely due to difficultly of measuring sleep outside a controlled, clinical, and laboratory study in ambulatory individuals, human biologists have yet to undergo a thorough

To test the hypothesis that fetal growth, indexed by birth weight (BW), induce metabolic adjustments in the fetus that will be reflected in differences in body composition in a sample of 6‐to 8‐years old urban Maya children from Yucatan, Mexico.

The idea of adaptation, in which an organism or population becomes better suited to its environment, is used in a variety of disciplines. Originating in evolutionary biology, adaptation has been a central theme in biological anthropology and human ecology. More recently, the study of adaptation in the context of climate change has become an important topic of research in the social sciences. While

Despite our focus on adaptation and human responses to climate, evolutionary and biological anthropologists (EBAs) are largely absent from conversations about contemporary “climate‐change adaptation,” a term popular in other disciplines, the development world, and related policy decisions. EBAs are missing a big opportunity to contribute to impactful, time‐sensitive applied work: we have extensive

High expression levels (HELs) of microRNA‐122 (miR‐122) or microRNA‐222 (miR‐222) have been associated with insulin resistance (IR), which leads to the development of obesity. The association between HELs of circulating miR‐122 and miR‐222 and the risk of obesity was evaluated in Mexican school‐aged children, where childhood obesity is the primary cause of morbidity.

Oxidative stress is hypothesized to contribute to age‐related somatic deterioration. Both reproductive and ecological context may necessitate tradeoffs that influence this outcome. We examined whether measures of lifetime reproductive effort were related to levels of oxidative stress biomarkers in peri‐ and post‐menopausal women and whether associations were moderated by rural or urban residence.

Sexual minority (SM) people experience significant stress associated with stigma, contributing to a higher rate of adverse health outcomes. Several known factors (eg, smoking) elevate risk of poor bone health, but to date little research has examined disparities in bone health among SM people. To address this, we analyzed sexual orientation differences in an available bone mineral density (BMD) cross‐sectional

To construct a physical activity profile of the adult population of the Majha region of the Indian Punjab.

Energetic investment in human reproduction has long been recognized as costly, influencing developmental, physiological, and behavioral patterns in males and females. These effects are largely coordinated through the actions of reproductive hormones (eg, testosterone, estradiol, and progesterone). Here, the utility and limitations of minimally invasive sampling techniques are explored, providing a

Early‐life conditions play an important role in human development, affecting health status and survival. Conditions in utero partly depend on the external environment and thus vary in relation to the season of birth. The aim of this study was to investigate if people born in different seasons of the year differ in values of biomarkers that reflect conditions during fetal development.

Human pregnancy is associated with important physiological changes that usually increase energetic requirements. However, great variability exists in the costs and mechanisms required to bear pregnancy. Since body mass (BM) and composition are modified during gestation, it is of great interest to compare the influence of BM on energy expenditure (EE) in pregnant and nonpregnant females.

This study examined the impact of in utero exposure to Ramadan, the Islamic fasting month, by trimester on height at ages 0 to 18 for a sample of children from Tehran, Iran. If exposure to Ramadan is associated with significant nutritional stress to the fetus, the fetus's adaptive responses to nutritional insufficiency could manifest as changes in height during childhood, long before any effects on

Colostrum is the initial milk secretion which ingestion by neonates warrants their adaptive start in life. Colostrum is accordingly expected to be attractive to newborns. The present study aims to assess whether colostrum is olfactorily attractive for 2‐day‐old newborns when presented against mature milk or a control.

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the ratio of energy intake (EI) and energy expenditure (EE) and body composition, physical activity and macronutrients intake, considering maturity as a moderator.

The goal of the present investigation is to analyze thymus, brain, heart, liver, and kidney weights in SIDS victims compared to controls.

Human responses to climate variation have a rich anthropological history. However, much less is known about how people living in small‐scale societies perceive climate change, and what climate data are useful in predicting food production at a scale that affects daily lives.

Long‐distance social relationships have been a feature of human evolutionary history; evidence from the paleoanthropological, archeological, and ethnographic records suggest that one function of these relationships is to manage the risk of resource shortfalls due to climate variability. We should expect long‐distance relationships to be especially important when shortfalls are chronic or temporally

Climate change has long been recognized as a significant driver of dietary diversity and dietary quality. An often overlooked aspect of climate change are shifts in fire regimes, which have the potential to drastically affect landscape diversity, species distributions, and ultimately, human diets. Here, we investigate whether the fire regimes shaped by Indigenous Australians change landscape diversity

The aim of the present study was to examine associations between age at menarche and body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist‐to‐height ratio (WHtR), and waist‐to‐hip ratio (WHR) in young adult women.

The specificity of training principle holds that adaptations to exercise training closely match capacity to the specific demands of the stimulus. Improvements in endurance sport performance gained through strength training are a notable exception to this principle. While the proximate mechanisms for how strength training produces muscular adaptations beneficial to endurance sports are increasingly

Physical fitness (PF) and physical activity (PA) are inversely associated with body mass index and waist circumference (WC), whereas sedentary time (ST) seems to boost obesity in youth. The aim was to examine the associations of each selected PF test, PA‐related exposures, and specific ST patterns with obesity and determine the most relevant ones, in a large sample of a school‐aged adolescent.

The importance of movement behaviors for health is well known, although few studies have examined the adherence to movement guidelines in low‐income preschoolers from a middle‐income country, as Brazil. This study reports the proportion of preschoolers meeting the 24‐hour movement guidelines and investigates its associations with demographic correlates in Brazilian low‐income preschoolers.

SHARE, a pan‐European panel study in 27 European countries and Israel, has collected dried blood spot (DBS) samples from approximately 27 000 respondents in 13 countries. We aim to obtain factors to convert analyte values between DBS and venous blood samples (VBS) taking account of adverse fieldwork conditions such as small spot size, high temperature and humidity, short drying time and long shipment

To determine changes in the anthropometric and motor characteristics of young males during the first 20 years of the 21st century in Poland.

Candidate gene methylation studies of NR3C1 have identified associations with psychosocial adversity, including war trauma. This pilot study (sample sizes from 22 to 45 for primary analyses) examined NR3C1 methylation in a group of Kenyan pastoralist young men in relation to culturally relevant traumatic experiences, including participation in coalitional lethal gun violence.

Human dimensions of climate change research in the Arctic often proposes ways for local communities to adapt to changes to their environment, foregrounding problems posed by climate change while treating social, political, and economic factors as background conditions. We explore the relevance of this research paradigm for Inuit by examining how Inuit from Kangiqsujuaq present and discuss the major

A detailed understanding of female reproductive functioning is important to many disciplines including anthropology, evolutionary theory, demography, psychology, and biomedicine. In this article, I describe strategies and methods that have been used successfully in community‐based studies of human reproduction, many in remote locales, to produce high quality biomarker data. These techniques are applicable

Multiple regression approaches for estimating body mass by somatometry typically use stature and biiliocristal breadth. However, these measures were obtained largely from Europeans, Africans, and Indo‐Mediterraneans, whereas mid‐latitude Asians were not broadly reflected. Thus, new estimation formulas for circum‐Pacific Asians were devised, and the accuracy was evaluated using raw individual data.

1 INTRODUCTION Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) has emerged as a deadly clinical disease. The virus that causes COVID‐19, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2), is readily transmitted in the community, where it is having devastating social and economic impacts. Yet our understanding of SARS and COVID‐19 is derived primarily from studying the most severe cases in clinical and

1 INTRODUCTION All of the policies adopted or proposed so far to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus require immediate and extensive behavioral change. However, changing behavior is difficult even when the benefits are borne by solid science. Doing so effectively requires an appreciation for how people learn behaviors and translate information into action. Evidence‐based policies for altering

1 BACKGROUND While this article was being written, the novel coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) had infected over 4.48 million people in the United States, and killed over 152 000 of them (CDC COVID Data Tracker, 2020). The numbers for the rest of the world were not any better, with over 12.3 million people infected and nearly 510 000 killed by coronavirus disease

1 INTRODUCTION The COVID‐19 pandemic has substantially impacted the lives and health of people worldwide; with millions of confirmed cases and thousands of deaths, the immediate medical effects of the pandemic are obvious and substantial. However, the COVID‐19 pandemic will likely continue to negatively impact human health for years to come, especially among individuals experiencing pandemic‐related

Breastfeeding and the provision of human milk are associated with positive maternal and infant health outcomes immediately postpartum, across the life course, and across generations (AAP, 2012; Victora et al., 2016). Over the last two decades, there have been groundbreaking advances in the areas of human milk science and infectious diseases (Colt et al., 2017; Foeller et al., 2020; WHO, 2016). In the

The COVID‐19 pandemic is one of the greatest public heath challenges of the last century. This is a virulent and contagious virus which has spread rapidly across the globe, causing severe illness and widespread social and economic disruptions. Given the massive toll of the current pandemic, there is an urgent need for research on all aspects of the virus and its spread, including the impact of demographic

Humans and infectious disease agents share a long, intimate coevolutionary history, and this biocultural dynamic includes stigma. By stigma, we mean the process by which some people become morally discredited, socially devalued, and disempowered on the basis of disease diagnosis or other trait. The most powerful stigmas in the past and now are around diseases considered contagious, potentially deadly

1 INTRODUCTION Coronavirus 19 (COVID‐19), the infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2), is both transforming and ending lives. In only 7 months (December 2019‐July 2020), at least 11 million people have contracted the virus and over 500 000 have died (WHO, 2020). Though its impact is wide, COVID‐19's illness and death tolls are felt most acutely by communities

For a brief moment, in the early days of COVID‐19, some reports heralded the new coronavirus, SARS‐CoV‐2, as a “great equalizer.” It is unlikely that any anthropologist, human biologist, historian, or public health scientist found this idea tempting. Pandemics always follow the fault lines of society—exposing and often magnifying power inequities that shape population health even in normal times (Wade

1 INTRODUCTION In times of upheaval, clear information dissemination is more important than ever. During the COVID‐19 pandemic, the world has seen ad hoc messaging lead to public and policy reactions with largely negative consequences (Everett, Colombatto, Chituc, Brady, & Crockett, 2020; Funk, 2017; Garrett, 2020). The late George Armelagos and colleagues repeatedly highlighted the resurgence of infectious

SARS‐CoV‐2, the causative agent of COVID‐19 pandemic caught the world unawares by its sudden onset in early 2020. Memories of the 1918 Spanish Flu were rekindled raising extreme fear for the virus, but in essence, it was the host and not the virus, which was deciding the outcome of the infection. Age, gender, and preexisting conditions played critical roles in shaping COVID‐19 outcome. People of lower

The COVID‐19 pandemic has led to unprecedented levels of unemployment and financial strain for many Americans. Among the individuals impacted by financial strain are pregnant women, for whom added financial stress may be particularly impactful due to the costs associated with prenatal care and providing for a newborn. Financial stress has been previously associated with elevated depression symptoms

Birth season has been inconsistently associated with anthropometrics, bone fractures, and malocclusion. Our aim was to assess the association between birth season and anthropometrics (height, weight, birth weight), bone fractures and dental malocclusion in the United States.