ABSTRACT
This chapter defines biological determinism, discuss its shortcomings, and explain what people hope to accomplish when using it. It describes anthropology with reference to holism and the comparative method. The chapter demonstrates how human groups may be studied as complex adaptive systems, focusing on adaptation and emergence. For Francis Galton, nature was the more powerful head by far. In explaining all human characteristics as a result of nature, Galton discredited the role played by upbringing, diverting attention from ‘nonbiological’ causes of human diversity. One strain of systems thinking is the ecological or ecosystems approach, which gained popularity in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s as people began to realize in large numbers that some human actions were harming the environment. Microbes in streams, lakes, and oceans effectively serve as water filters; if they come to harm water can become polluted even without human dumping.
