Michael A Little
Biographic Data
| ID | 82003 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michael A Little |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michael A |
| FAMILY NAME | Little |
| SIGNATURE | LITTLE M A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Binghamton University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1035-1237 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 60 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 183 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 58 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1976 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
James Cowles Prichard of the Red Lodge: A Life of Science During the Age of Improvement
History and Legacy of Andean Research in Nuñoa, Peru
The high‐altitude town and associated political district of Nuñoa, Peru, has served as an anthropological field research site for more than 60 years. The earliest studies were initiated by Paul T. Baker and his students from Penn State University in 1962. He supervised and guided research for over a decade, with a focus on the adaptation of the resident Quechua Natives to high‐altitude hypoxia and cold. These studies included physiological resear…
Predictors of milk cortisol in North American women
OBJECTIVES: Human milk content varies across mother-child dyads, environments, and populations. Among the hormones in milk is cortisol, a glucocorticoid; its impact on the breastfeeding child is unknown. Milk cortisol may constitute a signal to the child's developing physiology which can shape characteristics (e.g., growth, temperament) to prevailing environmental conditions. This exploratory study evaluated the maternal, breastfeeding, and infan…
American Association of Physical Anthropologists (AAPA)
Coming to grips with economic development: Variation in adult hand grip strength during health transition in Vanuatu
OBJECTIVES: To determine whether (1) maximal handgrip strength (HGS) is associated with inter-island level of economic development in Vanuatu, (2) how associations between island of residence and HGS are mediated by age, sex, body size/composition, and individual sociodeomographic variation, and (3) whether HGS is predictive of hypertension. MATERIAL AND METHODS: HGS was collected from 833 adult (aged 18 and older) men and women on five islands r…
Physical anthropology in 1918 and the founding of the U.S. journal
In 1918, the first issue of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology was prepared and distributed by Aleš Hrdlička, the Curator of Physical Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution. This was a singular act, both in the general and specific sense. It was the first journal of physical anthropology published in the United States, and it was a sole effort by Hrdlička, who was committed to promoting and recognizing physical anthropology as a n…
Robert Edwin Jones
Grip strength and body composition in T urkana pastoralist children and adolescents
OBJECTIVES: In an earlier study, age changes and sex differences in grip strength were documented for adult Turkana pastoralists of Kenya (Little and Johnson, 1986). The objective here is to characterize age changes and sex differences in grip strength of Turkana children and adolescents in the context of arm lean tissue composition, and in comparison with other African, African-American, and non-Western populations. METHODS: Anthropometric measu…
Geoffrey Ainsworth Harrison
Vera Radaslava (Demerec) Dyson-Hudson (1930-2016)
Kenneth Adrian Raine Kennedy (1930-2014)
To adapt or not to adapt
A Half Century of High‐Altitude Studies in Anthropology: Introduction to the Plenary Session
Until 50 years ago, high-altitude terrestrial research was conducted largely within the realm of environmental physiology, where interests were focused on physiological mechanisms and mountain exploration. Scientists from the United States, Europe, and Peru had developed sophisticated physiological models of adaptation and acclimatization to the hypoxia of high altitude, but very little research had been conducted on permanent residents, particul…
History of Human Biology in the United States of America
This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Human Biology and its History Major Divisions of American Human Biology Chapter Summary References Cited Recommended Readings
Human biology association archives at the smithsonian institution national anthropological archives
The history of how scientific disciplines begin and grow is written in the lives of the scientists whose ideas shape their contents. It is rare that these scientists write autobiographies or have biographies written about them, and even in such sources the evaluation of the disciplinary development is shaded to highlight the contributions of the individual whose story is being detailed. Disciplines often come into focus when the “founding” scient…
Joseph S. Weiner and the foundation of post‐WW II human biology in the United Kingdom
Both the United States and the United Kingdom experienced a transformation in the science of physical anthropology from the period before World War II until the post‐war period. In the United States, Sherwood L. Washburn is credited with being a leading figure in this transformation. In the United Kingdom, two individuals were instrumental in bringing about a similar change in the profession. These were Joseph S. Weiner at the University of Oxfor…
Human Population Biology in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century
Human population biology can be identified as the biocultural study of living humans from evolutionary, historical, populational, developmental, biomedical, and anthropological perspectives. Biological anthropology really "came of age" during the second half of the twentieth century, after the end of World War II. Human population biology, as a subfield of biological anthropology, was a part of this "scientific maturation" of the discipline. Cont…
Raymond Pearl and the Shaping of Human Biology
Raymond Pearl (1879-1940) was a significant figure in the field of biology. He founded the journal Human Biology and almost single-handedly promoted and established the scientific discipline of human biology. His scientific versatility was one of his most important features during the first four decades of the 20th century, and he played a major role in developing the fields of biodemography, human population biology, human life-cycle and life sp…
Raymond Pearl and the Shaping of Human Biology
Raymond Pearl (1879–1940) was a significant figure in the field of biology. He founded the journal Human Biology and almost single-handedly promoted and established the scientific discipline of human biology. His scientific versatility was one of his most important features during the first four decades of the 20th century, and he played a major role in developing the fields of biodemography, human population biology, human life-cycle and life sp…
Chapter 10. The Two 20th-Century Crises of Racial Anthropology
Histories of American Physical Anthropology in the Twentieth Century
Histories of American Physical Anthropology in the Twentieth Century chronicles the history of physical anthropology_or, as it is now known, biological anthropology_from its professional origins in the late 1800 up to its modern transformation in the late 1900s. In this edited volume, 13 contributors trace the development of people, ideas, traditions, and organizations that contributed to the advancement of this branch of anthropology that focuse…
Blood pressure and lifestyle on Saba, Netherlands Antilles
During the 20th century, infectious disease morbidity and mortality generally waned whereas chronic degenerative diseases posed a growing burden at the global level. The population on Saba, Netherlands Antilles has recently experienced such an epidemiologic transition, and hypertension was reported to be extraordinarily high, although no prevalences have been reported and relationships with lifestyle factors associated with rapid modernization ha…
Towards the anatomy of a kiss
Paul Thornell Baker (1927-2007)
A brief history of the Human Biology Association: 1974-2004
Originally incorporated as the Human Biology Council in 1974, the Human Biology Association, as it has been known since 1994, has matured in the intervening 30 years to become a society that represents broadly the interests of human biologists in the U.S. and throughout the world. The purpose of this paper is to trace the development of the Association from its foundation to the present in the context of changes in the organization of the Associa…
Cattle Raiding, Cultural Survival, and Adaptability of East African Pastoralists
Since the late 1970s, cattle raiding with automatic weapons has escalated among nomadic herding societies in northern East Africa. We examine the impact of AK47 raiding on the adaptability of Karimojong agropastoralists in northern Uganda. Most notably, raiding is linked to a loss of population resilience in Karamoja, measured in increased mortality of young children and of adult males in their prime reproductive years and decreased female fertil…
Growth of nomadic and settled Turkana infants of northwest Kenya
Turkana tribespeople reside in a semi‐arid savanna ecosystem in northwest Kenya. For over a decade, Ngisonyoka Turkana nomads have been studied within a multidisciplinary framework that embraces ecology, anthropology, and human population biology. Original research objectives of the South Turkana Ecosystem Project were to study nomads longitudinally and within the context of the dry savanna ecosystem. These objectives have been expanded to incorp…
Human biology of African pastoralists
Pastoralism in Africa is a subsistence tradition that has a long and complex history. During the course of several thousand years of nomadic and semi-nomadic herding practices, pastoral populations have successfully exploited African savannas and rangelands by maintaining highly mobile and low-density human populations and by maintaining symbiotic relationships between the people and their livestock. This review will cover the pastoralists' adapt…
Grip strength, muscle fatigue, and body composition in nomadic Turkana pastoralists
Tests of hand grip strength and hand grip muscle fatigue were conducted on Ngisonyoka Turkana pastoralists of northwest Kenya to explore some of the functional relationships between activity and body composition. The test of maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) of hand grip flexors was conducted on 151 Turkana and 38 U.S. men and women. The fatigue test was conducted on the same number of subjects who were instructed to attempt to maintain 80% of …
Growth of Young Nomadic and Settled Turkana Children
Growth patterns of Turkana nomadic children (N = 333) and settled schoolchildren (N = 280) aged 4 to 9 years were compared. The objective was to assess effects of a sedentary life-style on the growth patterns of Turkana children. Settled children with institutional food support tended to be larger at all ages than nomadic children in most measures of size and body composition. At age 9 years, settled children were 7.5 cm taller than the nomads. W…
Human Biology and Ecology: Variation in Nature and the Nature of Variation
Human biology seeks to understand human variation and the biological, environmental, social, and historical influences on that variation. Views of the nature of both variation and environment have changed during the past 100 years. Typological approaches to nature and human diversity shifted to an evolutionary perspective during the first half of the 20th century. In the second half, widespread human biological variation was documented and interp…
Human Population Biology: A Transdisciplinary Science
This is a collection of 15 articles by various authors published as a tribute to biological anthropologist Paul T. Baker. The papers are organized under five headings: demography and population; genetics epidemiology and clinical medicine; physiology and the environment; the life cycle; and transdisciplinary approaches to the study of human biology. Aspects of research and methodologies are covered and some of the work conducted by Baker is descr…
Human Population Biology in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century
Human population biology can be identified as the biocultural study of living humans from evolutionary, historical, populational, developmental, biomedical, and anthropological perspectives. Biological anthropology really "came of age" during the second half of the twentieth century, after the end of World War II. Human population biology, as a subfield of biological anthropology, was a part of this "scientific maturation" of the discipline. Cont…
Coca Chewing and High-Altitude Stress: Possible Effects of Coca Alkaloids on Erythropoiesis [and Comments and Reply]
Andean Indians who chew coca seek to alleviate symptoms of hunger, thirst, fatigue, cold, and pain. A complete explanation of coca's use should account for these motives. The distribution of coca chewing in the Andes is shown to parallel that of polycythemia. Coca chewing is more common in higher altitudes, with men consistently chewing more than women and children, and chewing is especially common amongst mineworkers. Since androgens stimulate e…
Coca Chewing and High-Altitude Stress: A Spurious Correlation [and Comments and Reply]
Because the main present-day centres of coca chewing are in the high altiplano regions of Peru and Bolivia, it has been widely assumed that the habit evolved primarily as a response to the stresses of life at high altitudes. When archaeological, ethnohistorical, and botanical sources of evidence are considered, a different emphasis emerges. Before the European conquest, coca was chewed everywhere from Nicaragua to Chile and at all altitudes. This…
Rethinking Human Adaptation: Biological and Cultural Models
Pubertal timing, hormones, and body composition among adolescent Turkana males
The Turkana, like other East African pastoral groups, are known for their tall adult stature, achieved despite a blunted growth spurt during adolescence and continued growth into the early 20s. To investigate the hormonal mechanisms associated with the pattern of slow and continued adolescent growth, we collected data on hormonal status, height, weight, and trunk skinfolds and ethnographic self‐reports of testicular maturation in a cross‐sectiona…
Paul Thornell Baker (1927-2007)
Juan Comas's summary history of the American association of physical anthropologists (1928-1968)
This translation of Juan Comas's Summary History of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists was originally published in Spanish by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico, in 1969 (Departamento de Investigaciones Antropológicas, Publication 22). Physical anthropologists from North America and members of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists owe Juan Comas a debt of gratitude for having labored to prod…
Physical anthropology in 1918 and the founding of the U.S. journal
In 1918, the first issue of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology was prepared and distributed by Aleš Hrdlička, the Curator of Physical Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution. This was a singular act, both in the general and specific sense. It was the first journal of physical anthropology published in the United States, and it was a sole effort by Hrdlička, who was committed to promoting and recognizing physical anthropology as a n…
Joseph S. Weiner and the foundation of post‐WW II human biology in the United Kingdom
Both the United States and the United Kingdom experienced a transformation in the science of physical anthropology from the period before World War II until the post‐war period. In the United States, Sherwood L. Washburn is credited with being a leading figure in this transformation. In the United Kingdom, two individuals were instrumental in bringing about a similar change in the profession. These were Joseph S. Weiner at the University of Oxfor…
Science and empire: East coast fever in Rhodesia and the transvaal
Coming to grips with economic development: Variation in adult hand grip strength during health transition in Vanuatu
OBJECTIVES: To determine whether (1) maximal handgrip strength (HGS) is associated with inter-island level of economic development in Vanuatu, (2) how associations between island of residence and HGS are mediated by age, sex, body size/composition, and individual sociodeomographic variation, and (3) whether HGS is predictive of hypertension. MATERIAL AND METHODS: HGS was collected from 833 adult (aged 18 and older) men and women on five islands r…
Geoffrey Ainsworth Harrison
Vera Radaslava (Demerec) Dyson-Hudson (1930-2016)
Kenneth Adrian Raine Kennedy (1930-2014)
Gabriel Ward Lasker (1912-2002)
Skin reflectance relationships with temperature and skinfolds
Skin reflectance measurements were taken with six filters at a site on the medial aspect of the upper arm (underarm) prior to and following topical application of a cold compress. Skinfolds were measured at the underarm and triceps sites. The experiment was designed to test for effects of skin surface temperature and subcutaneous fat variations on skin color as determined by reflectometry. Topical cold‐induced erythema of the skin produced marked…
Skin temperatures at the nape in infants at high altitude
Skin temperatures were measured on three Quechua Indian infants resident at 4,000 meters above sea level in Peru. Nape temperatures were warmer than other skin sites, suggesting that the brown adipose tissue associated with non‐shivering thermogenesis is metabolically active despite the reduced oxygen availability at high altitude. The question of the role of non‐shivering thermogenesis in infant thermoregulation under the covariant stresses of h…
Local cold exposure of Andean Indians during normal and simulated activities
Thermal responses of Andean Indians were measured during several customary tasks associated with cold exposure in the highlands of southern Peru. These included surface temperature measurements of women while they washed clothing in the river and similar measurements of men while they constructed a diversion channel in the same river. A third test measured the effects of alcohol consumption on body temperatures during light activity. Women mainta…
Man in the Andes: A multidisciplinary study of high-altitude Quechua
Skin temperatures at the nape in infants at high altitude
Skin temperatures were measured on three Quechua Indian infants resident at 4,000 meters above sea level in Peru. Nape temperatures were warmer than other skin sites, suggesting that the brown adipose tissue associated with non‐shivering thermogenesis is metabolically active despite the reduced oxygen availability at high altitude. The question of the role of non‐shivering thermogenesis in infant thermoregulation under the covariant stresses of h…
Local cold exposure of Andean Indians during normal and simulated activities
Thermal responses of Andean Indians were measured during several customary tasks associated with cold exposure in the highlands of southern Peru. These included surface temperature measurements of women while they washed clothing in the river and similar measurements of men while they constructed a diversion channel in the same river. A third test measured the effects of alcohol consumption on body temperatures during light activity. Women mainta…
Current status of environmental physiology research in anthropology
Albert Damon, ed. Physiological Anthropology. New York: Oxford University Press, 1975. xiii + 367 pp. Figures, tables, illustrations, and references. $15.00 (cloth), $6.95 (paper)
V. Human Variation and Adaptability: Regulating Body Temperature . 1972. Produced by Charles Finance for Ebec. Scientific collaborator: Robert Henshaw
Physical Anthropology: Human Ecology in the Tropics. J. P. Garlick and R. W. J. Keay , eds
Coca Chewing and High-Altitude Stress: Possible Effects of Coca Alkaloids on Erythropoiesis [and Comments and Reply]
Andean Indians who chew coca seek to alleviate symptoms of hunger, thirst, fatigue, cold, and pain. A complete explanation of coca's use should account for these motives. The distribution of coca chewing in the Andes is shown to parallel that of polycythemia. Coca chewing is more common in higher altitudes, with men consistently chewing more than women and children, and chewing is especially common amongst mineworkers. Since androgens stimulate e…
Skin reflectance relationships with temperature and skinfolds
Skin reflectance measurements were taken with six filters at a site on the medial aspect of the upper arm (underarm) prior to and following topical application of a cold compress. Skinfolds were measured at the underarm and triceps sites. The experiment was designed to test for effects of skin surface temperature and subcutaneous fat variations on skin color as determined by reflectometry. Topical cold‐induced erythema of the skin produced marked…
Skin and hair reflectance in women with red hair
Skin and hair reflectance were measured with the Photovolt Spectrophotometer in 33 young women with red hair. Four skin sites were measured: forehead, check, inner arm and shoulder. A subsample of 15 red-headed women were tested before and at the end of the summer to test for tanning effects. The study was designed to test for relationships between hair and skin colour by reflectance spectrophotometry. As expected, subjects generally had very pal…
Human Populations in the Andes: The Human Science Basis for Research Planning
Michael A. Little, Human Populations in the Andes: The Human Science Basis for Research Planning, Mountain Research and Development, Vol. 1, No. 2, State of Knowledge Report on Andean Ecosystems. Vol. 1: A General Prospectus on the Andean Region (Aug., 1981), pp. 145-170
Planning and Development of Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Research in the Andes
Coca Chewing and High-Altitude Stress: A Spurious Correlation [and Comments and Reply]
Because the main present-day centres of coca chewing are in the high altiplano regions of Peru and Bolivia, it has been widely assumed that the habit evolved primarily as a response to the stresses of life at high altitudes. When archaeological, ethnohistorical, and botanical sources of evidence are considered, a different emphasis emerges. Before the European conquest, coca was chewed everywhere from Nicaragua to Chile and at all altitudes. This…
Rethinking Human Adaptation: Biological and Cultural Models
Grip strength, muscle fatigue, and body composition in nomadic Turkana pastoralists
Tests of hand grip strength and hand grip muscle fatigue were conducted on Ngisonyoka Turkana pastoralists of northwest Kenya to explore some of the functional relationships between activity and body composition. The test of maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) of hand grip flexors was conducted on 151 Turkana and 38 U.S. men and women. The fatigue test was conducted on the same number of subjects who were instructed to attempt to maintain 80% of …
Population, Health and Nutrition in the Sahel: Issues in the Welfare of Selected West African Communities . Allan G. Hill , ed
Human biology of African pastoralists
Pastoralism in Africa is a subsistence tradition that has a long and complex history. During the course of several thousand years of nomadic and semi-nomadic herding practices, pastoral populations have successfully exploited African savannas and rangelands by maintaining highly mobile and low-density human populations and by maintaining symbiotic relationships between the people and their livestock. This review will cover the pastoralists' adapt…
Human Population Biology: A Transdisciplinary Science
This is a collection of 15 articles by various authors published as a tribute to biological anthropologist Paul T. Baker. The papers are organized under five headings: demography and population; genetics epidemiology and clinical medicine; physiology and the environment; the life cycle; and transdisciplinary approaches to the study of human biology. Aspects of research and methodologies are covered and some of the work conducted by Baker is descr…
Growth of Young Nomadic and Settled Turkana Children
Growth patterns of Turkana nomadic children (N = 333) and settled schoolchildren (N = 280) aged 4 to 9 years were compared. The objective was to assess effects of a sedentary life-style on the growth patterns of Turkana children. Settled children with institutional food support tended to be larger at all ages than nomadic children in most measures of size and body composition. At age 9 years, settled children were 7.5 cm taller than the nomads. W…
Energy reserves and parity of nomadic and settled Turkana women
Members of the Turkana tribe include settled and nomadic peoples who reside in the southern part of Turkana District in the semiarid region of northwest Kenya. Nomadic Ngisonyoka Turkana keep livestock (camels, cattle, sheep, goats, donkeys), subsist principally on livestock products, and move camps frequently in search of forage for the livestock; settled Turkana cultivate foods along the principal rivers. Both nomadic and settled Turkana are su…
Science and empire: East coast fever in Rhodesia and the transvaal
Man and the Biosphere
Height, Health and History: Nutritional Status in the United Kingdom, 1750-1980. Roderick Floud, Kenneth Wachter, and Annabel Gregory
Growth of nomadic and settled Turkana infants of northwest Kenya
Turkana tribespeople reside in a semi‐arid savanna ecosystem in northwest Kenya. For over a decade, Ngisonyoka Turkana nomads have been studied within a multidisciplinary framework that embraces ecology, anthropology, and human population biology. Original research objectives of the South Turkana Ecosystem Project were to study nomads longitudinally and within the context of the dry savanna ecosystem. These objectives have been expanded to incorp…
Ethics in the Fieldwork of Physical Anthropologists
The kiss of death: Chagas' disease in the Americas
Sociology (28 works) · History (21 works) · Biology (20 works) · Computer Science (20 works) · Library science (18 works) · Medicine (18 works) · Demography (17 works) · Anthropology (16 works) · Citation (16 works) · Geography (16 works)