Human Adaptability: An Introduction to Ecological Anthropology

The book did a good job of introducing the study of how people adapt to different environments from cultural, technological and acclimatory changes. It first explains how different groups and regions can be studied, then it goes into the various environments.

While I have only gone through about half the book, so far it does a fair job of summarizing studies of anthropology. The book is on the technical side however, and can be a bit of chore to digest. Overall I find it an interesting read in human interaction with the environment.

I would say quite hastily that this book is probably the best introduction to Ecological Anthropology, written by a massive authority on the subject. What I love about the book is its ability to present the pertinent aspects of the subject matter in a way that forces you to understand why it is important. My only caveat about the book is that it does assume a certain degree of knowledge about environmental science that I found most students of anthropology (including myself when I read it) do not have. Keeping this in mind, if you do have supplementary texts available on the natural science aspects of this subject, than you will definately be able to appreciate the depths of human adaptability that Moran describes. This cannot necessarily be considered a weakness of the book, since the natural science has been discussed elsewhere. On the other hand, the material in this book is a great compilation of cultural, physiological, and genetic adaptations around the world. Since it is this that Moran stresses, it is of no detriment to the book that the natural science is not as detailed as it must be. Below is a list of supplementary texts that should be read alongside this book, the most important one being the soil science textbook. 1) The Nature and Properties of Soils - by Nyle Brady & Ray Weil 2) Ecology: Theories and Applications - by Peter Stiling 3) A book on Human Biology and Human Physiology (I have not found one to my liking which is why I don't recommend a specific one here).