'Engrossing richly informative . . . challenges us to rethink universal health benchmarks' New
Yorker A new way of thinking about diversity and what really unites us from the
internationally renowned author of Burn Real diversity isn't skin deep. Over the past 100 000
years as humans expanded into every biome on the planet our bodies and our cultures have been
fine-tuned to our local environments. Beyond the physical demands of our climate we live our
lives immersed in ideas and norms that affect what we eat how we move and why we get sick -
all of which in turn affect how our bodies work. As an evolutionary anthropologist
conducting ground-breaking research with human populations around the globe Herman Pontzer has
come to see much more clearly how our genes and environments combine to shape our bodies and
our health: for better or worse. In this book he takes us on a tour of the human body and the
surprising ways it can change in response to its environment: from the Andean groups who have
developed increased lung capacity to the Sama divers who have larger spleens. He also
highlights the critical ways we misinterpret biological adaptations: in healthcare public
policy and individual choices. With so much of our wellbeing and public discourse centred on
human biology a clear understanding of the distinction between socially constructed and
genetic differences is more important than ever. This timely reappraisal of an overlooked
science is an essential guide to our remarkable bodies.
