There is nothing distinctively new about applying bioanthropology to health and welfare issues. Such applications have taken the form of contributions to medical and dental training and research. In the past, however, the contributions have been conceived of as incidental rather than fundamental: for instance, an anthropologist might be asked about the bodily form of schizophrenic patients because of past literature linking constitutional types to mental diseases and the generally held view that what physical anthropologists do is measure people's bodies. However, a more significant potential contribution of anthropology in the study of schizophrenia may lie in unravelling the interrelationships between ways of life, mental health and bodily development. That is, there are important sociocultural factors in the epidemiology of both schizophrenia and (through diet and activity) of body build.

Human population biology

In this book we propose to emphasize the applications of bioanthropology to broad issues rather than mere applications of anthropological techniques. Because of this, the specifically anthropological aspect of the material may not be clearly distinguishable as such; that is, what makes some of these ideas biological anthropology rather than epidemiology, population genetics or physiology may not seem very substantial. Perhaps it is a matter of emphasis.

Characteristically, bioanthropology is concerned with biological variables in human populations. Thus the concern for the individual – so emphasized in medicine and the other healing arts – is an incident of study rather than an object of investigation for the biological anthropologist.