A hormone is a chemical messenger made within cells which then travels to and binds with specific receptors in the same or nearby cells, or cells in a distant organ. Most hormones exert their effects in four broad physiological areas: 1) reproduction, 2) growth and development, 3) maintenance of the internal environment, and 4) regulation of energy availability (Ojeda and Griffin, 1996). Anthropologists have long studied these four areas, with the aim of identifying the causes and consequences of environmental, cultural, and psychological ''stress'' on these systems. This volume continues this research trajectory, with a focus on combining hormonal measures with the demographic, anthropometric, ethnographic, and behavioral data traditionally collected in the field. Technological advances in endocrinology, immunology, and molecular biology in the last 20 years have enabled the development of efficient, relatively cheap, and highly specific hormonal assays. In the last decade, anthropologists have begun to adapt these tools for field research. The collection of this type of data permits a more refined level of investigation of physiology in anthropology than has previously been possible, and also enables anthropologists to contribute unique data to endocrinology-that is, hormonal data collected in nonclinical (naturalistic) and non-Western settings.
This volume is the outgrowth of a symposium organized by C.M. Worthman and C. Panter-Brick at the 1995 Human Biology Association Annual Meeting, and provides an overview of some of the endocrinological research that anthropologists have been undertaking.