Pearl Memorial Lecture. Humans at the extremes: Exploring human adaptation to ecological and social stressors

Abstract

The field of human biology has long explored how human populations have adapted to extreme environmental circumstances. Yet, it has become increasingly clear that conditions of social stress, poverty, and lifestyle change play equally important roles in shaping human biological variation and health. In this paper, I provide a brief background on the foundational human adaptability research of the International Biological Programme (IBP) from the 1960s, highlighting how its successes and critiques have shaped current research directions in the field. I then discuss and reflect on my own field research that has examined the influence of both environmental and social stresses on human populations living in different ecosystems: the Peruvian Andes, the Siberian arctic, and the Bolivian rainforest. Finally, I consider how the papers in this special issue advance our understanding of human adaptability to extreme conditions and offer directions for future research. Drawing on our field's distinctive evolutionary and biocultural perspectives, human biologists are uniquely positioned to examine how the interplay between social and ecological domains influences the human condition.

The now and future of human biology at the extremes: An introduction to the special issue

“…In his 2022 Pearl Memorial Lecture, William Leonard looked back at a decades‐spanning career of revolutionizing the field of human biology and the study of human adaptability (Leonard, 2023). In his paper, Leonard outlines seminal work conducted since the establishment of the International Biological Programme for Human Biology research in environmental extremes.…”