How Humans Adapt

How Humans Adapt collects the papers, commentaries, and discussions from the 1981 Smithsonian international symposium on human physical and cultural adaptations. Drawing on a variety of disciplines, How Humans Adapt sets out a complex picture of past human adaptations and speculates on how future adaptations may ensure the continued survival of the human race.Dr. Donald J. Ortner was a curator at the Smithsonian's Department of Anthropology. His research concentrated on evidence of disease, evolution of host-parasite relationships in infection, the human immune response to disease, and the significance of disease in human biocultural adaptation.Proceedings from a Smithsonian symposium that consider past human adaptations and speculate on future adaptations that may ensure continued human survival.