Bioanthropological Research in Developing Countries

In recent years the number of biological anthropologists involved in research in developing countries has increased. This upsurge of interest can be traced in part to an increased awareness of the problems faced by populations in these countries and to an increased realization that anthropologists are well equipped to address those problems. Though the problems themselves are not new, the emphasis on short-term adaptation is new. Physical anthropology's traditional emphasis on long-term adaptation in racial studies, skeletal anatomy, and genetic adaptation involved a relative neglect of short-term biological problems and responses. The current shift in emphasis from prehistoric and modern industrialized populations to those of the Third World acknowledges the importance of short-term problems in understanding human adaptation.