The Solomon Islands Project: Long-term Study of Health, Human Biology and Culture Change (Research Monographs in Human Population Biology S.)

This volume summarizes the findings of the Harvard Solomon Islands medical-anthropological expeditions of the late 1960s and early 1970s, and presents the results of subsequent surveys of the same populations a decade later. The Harvard expeditions amassed extensive anthropological, genetic, and health data on over 3,000 individuals living in eight varied groups in these southwest Pacific islands. At the time, the Solomons were only marginally affected by world culture and technological advances. Particular strengths of this collection include genetic distance studies, longitudinal studies in blood pressure change and associated changes in body build, a prospective study of hepatitis B status and mortality, and an overview of epidemiological trends with modernization.