Culture, Urbanism and Changing Human Biology.
Culture, Urbanism and Changing Human Biology.
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文化、城市化和不断变化的人类生物学。
DOI：
10.1080/11287462.2014.897070
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发表时间：
2014
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Schell,LM
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Schell,LM
人类学家早就知道，由文化驱动的人类活动会改变环境。这在考古记录和对现代环境的研究中是显而易见的。也许旧石器时代以来最大的变化是城市人口的组织。新的环境可以通过进化重塑人类生物学，正如原始人谱系的进化所显示的那样。进化并不是唯一能够重塑我们生物学的过程。我们人类生物学中的一些变化是适应性和进化性的，而另一些则是病理性的。现代城市环境可能会给人类生物学带来哪些变化？环境方面的一个重大新变化是主要通过城市化引入污染物。污染物可以以多种方式影响人类生物学。有证据表明，某些污染物可以改变人类的生长、生殖和认知功能，并根据污染物的不同以不同的方式改变。因此，污染物对人类生物学家和人类学家具有普遍意义。此外，它们还说明了生物文化相互作用的特点，人类的变化。人类通过改变环境来适应，这是一个文化过程，然后通过生物学上的改变来适应新的环境。这种持续的互动过程是数千年来人类变化的基本特征。
Anthropologists have long known that human activity driven by culture changes the environment. This is apparent in the archeologicalrecord and through the study of the modern environment. Perhaps the largest change since the Paleolithic era is the organization of human populations in cities. New environments can reshape human biology through evolution as shown by the evolution of the hominid lineage. Evolution is not the only process capable of reshaping our biology. Some changes in our human biology are adaptive and evolutionary while others are pathological. What changes in human biology may be wrought by the modern urban environment? One significant new change in the environment is the introduction of pollutants largely through urbanization. Pollutants can affect human biology in myriad ways. Evidence shows that human growth, reproduction and cognitive functioning can be altered by some pollutants, and altered in different ways depending on the pollutant. Thus, pollutants have significance for human biologists and anthropologists generally. Further, they illustrate the bio-cultural interaction characterizing human change. Humans adapt by changing the environment, a cultural process, and then change biologically to adjust to that new environment. This ongoing, interactive process is a fundamental characteristic of human change over the millennia.