Patterns of Human GrowthThis new, completely revised and updated edition provides a synthesis of the forces that shaped the evolution of the human growth pattern, the biocultural factors that direct its expression, the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that regulate individual development, and the biomathematical approaches that are needed to analyze and interpret human growth. After covering the history, philosophy, and basic biological principles of human development, the book turns to the evolution of the human life cycle. Later chapters explore the physiological, environmental, and cultural reasons for population variation in growth, and the genetic and endocrine factors that regulate individual development, providing a comprehensive explanation for the functional and adaptive significance of human growth patterns. The final chapter integrates all this information into a truly interactive biocultural model of human development. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Anthropology and growth | 2 |
Maya in Disneyland | 3 |
Growth and evolution | 6 |
Growth theory | 9 |
Human auxology | 14 |
Background to the study of human growth | 18 |
Historical background for the study of human growth | 19 |
Why do girls have adolescence or why wait so long to have a baby? | 209 |
Why do boys have adolescence? | 214 |
Summary of adolescence | 216 |
The valuable grandmother or could menopause evolve? | 217 |
Growth variation in living human populations | 225 |
Population differences in rate of growth | 228 |
Differences in growth between boys and girls | 232 |
Population variation in skeletal dental and sexual maturation | 235 |
Basic principles of human growth | 54 |
Prenatal stages | 55 |
Birth | 58 |
The evolution of human growth | 98 |
Mammalian growth | 101 |
Mammalian reproduction | 104 |
Brains and learning | 110 |
Stages of mammalian growth | 114 |
Primate growth patterns | 123 |
Of brains and bodies | 130 |
Is the human adolescent growth spurt unique? | 131 |
Some important differences between human and nonhuman primate growth | 146 |
A philosophy of human growth | 149 |
Evolution of the human life cycle | 153 |
Life history and stages of the life cycle | 154 |
The evolution of ontogeny | 155 |
Neoteny and human evolution | 158 |
Hypermorphosis and human evolution | 161 |
Critiques of neoteny and hypermorphosis | 164 |
Mathematical evidence against heterochrony | 169 |
The other side of the coin | 171 |
Human childhood | 173 |
The passage from childhood and the midgrowth spurt | 178 |
How and when did human childhood evolve? | 181 |
Who benefits from childhood? | 189 |
5 Childhood allows for developmental plasticity | 200 |
When and why did adolescence evolve? | 201 |
Why did the growth spurt evolve? | 203 |
Hereditary and environmental interactions as the cause of population variation | 239 |
Body proportions | 241 |
Size versus shape | 242 |
Secular trends | 243 |
What do secular trends mean? | 254 |
Negative secular trends | 255 |
Population differences in body composition | 258 |
The significance of population variation | 262 |
Adaptive value of body size in human populations | 263 |
Environmental factors influencing growth | 268 |
Altitude | 283 |
effects on body size and shape | 286 |
effects on seasonal rates of growth | 288 |
Migration and urbanization | 297 |
Socioeconomic status | 304 |
Size and social mobility | 324 |
Genetic and endocrine regulation of human growth | 329 |
Genetics of human development | 330 |
Endocrinology of growth | 351 |
A biocultural view of human growth | 387 |
Biocultural interactions in contemporary populations | 388 |
Risks for grandparents | 392 |
Stress hormones and human development | 394 |
The future | 397 |
Glossary | 399 |
References | 409 |
| 442 | |
Common terms and phrases
adolescent adolescent growth spurt adrenarche adult adulthood African androgens apes auxology average behavior biocultural biological birth weight Bogin bone boys and girls brain cells changes Chapter child childhood chimpanzee correlations cultural differences effect endocrine environment environmental evolutionary factors female Figure genes genetic gonadal gonadarche groups growth and development growth in height growth rate Guatemala heterochrony homeobox hominids hormones Human Biology human evolution human growth hypermorphosis hypothalamus increase individuals infants juvenile stage Ladinos length levels living longitudinal male mammals Maya mean measured melatonin menarche menopause migration monkeys neoteny normal nutrients nutritional offspring parents pattern of growth percent period physical placenta populations prenatal primates protein puberty pygmies rate of growth relatively reproductive rhesus monkey rural sample sedentes sexual maturation skeletal social social mammals socioeconomic status species stature taller Tanner testosterone tion tissues twins undernutrition urban variation velocity curves weaning women