ABSTRACT
The disciplinary origins of human biology or biological anthropology are quite diverse and cross-cut the social and biological sciences. The human adaptability studies demonstrate the potential value of investigating human populations within an ecosystem framework. In the 1950’s, the ecologist and epidemiologist Marston Bates argued persuasively for the development of a field of “human ecology” in which ecological principles were to be applied to the study of human populations. By the 1960’s pioneering human biologists on both sides of the Atlantic were developing ecological approaches to the study of human adaptation. Planning for the International Biological Program began in 1961 and the program was initiated by the International Council of Scientific Unions in July 1964. The South Turkana Ecosystem Project has as its major objective the analysis of the role of human populations in a dry savanna ecosystem. Livestock production and the dynamics of herd size and composition are objective measures of pastoral ecosystem utilization.
