Author Description

A group of villages in the Otmoor region of Oxfordshire was the subject of a fifteen year study of human biology, and this book provides a detailed account of these findings. To begin, the historical demography of the region was reconstructed using its excellent parish records; this enabled changing patterns of population size, fertility, mortality, and other factors to be documented. Predictions were then made about current genetic structure and tested by studies of the biological variety in present day populations that measured gene frequency distribution and a number of anthropometric and psychometric traits, as well as analyzing their influence on phenomena such as marriage and social mobility. Further studies examined the health and well-being of today's inhabitants in which lifestyle characteristics are described and their possible effects on stress levels, sleep patterns, and morbidity histories are identified. The result is a unique account of life in an English village from a biological point of view.