ABSTRACT
The need for exploring, the linkage be tween man's internal systems and those in which he lives may perhaps be clarified by the questions that arise when an anthropolo gist considers the kinds of definitions usu ally given for the term "stress." At the be ginning of a symposium on stress in which I participated at the Army Medical Service Graduate School in 1953, stress was defined by Major General Streit (15, p. i i i) in his address of welcome as follows: "Stress may be regarded as the resistance of the organ ism to external loads. These external loads may influence the defense mechanisms of the body so they will undergo certain struc tural functional changes. These changes may be manifest, either through structural or chemical changes in certain specific tissues, or there may be a disintegration of the whole organism, with quick resulting death. Or, if there is a reorganization of the de fense mechanisms of the body, there may be enough reorganization to make the organism compatible again with life, under certain special environmental conditions. In the lat ter case, medical care and treatment may restore this organism to something near nor mal again."
