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Andrea S. Wiley Professor of Anthropology Email: wileyas@jmu.edu Office: 207 Sheldon Hall Phone: 540-568-6984 Fax: 540-568-6112 |
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Selected Publications:
Wiley,
Andrea S. (2004) An Ecology of High-altitude Infancy: A
Biocultural Perspective. New York:
Wiley,
Andrea S. (2005) Does milk make children grow? Relationships between
milk consumption and height in NHANES
Wiley,
Andrea S. (2004) “Drink milk for fitness:” the cultural politics of
human biological variation and milk consumption
Vitzthum, Virginia J. and Andrea S.
Wiley (2003) The proximate determinants of fertility in populations
exposed to chronic
Wiley, Andrea S. (2002) Increasing
usage of prenatal care in Ladakh (India): the role of cultural and
ecological factors.
Wiley, Andrea S. (2002)
Food, Health, and Disease.
In Encyclopedia of Food and Culture.
Solomon H. Katz, ed.
Wiley, Andrea S. (2002) Geophagy. In
Encyclopedia of Food and Culture. Solomon H. Katz, ed. New
York:
Wiley, Andrea S. (2002) Commentary on
Fessler’s Reproductive Immunosuppression and Diet. Current
Anthropology
Wiley, Andrea S. and Leslie Carlin
(1999) Demographic contexts and the adaptive role of infant attachment
behavior:
Wiley, Andrea S. and Pike, Ivy (1998)
An alternative method for assessing early mortality in contemporary
populations.
Wiley, Andrea S. (1998) The ecology of low natural fertility in Ladakh. Journal of Biosocial Science 30(4):457-480.
Wiley, Andrea S. and Katz, Solomon H. (1998) Geophagy in Pregnancy: a test of an hypothesis. Current Anthropology 39(4):532-545.
Wiley, Andrea S. (1997) A Role for Biology in the Cultural Ecology of Ladakh. Human Ecology 25(2):273-295.
Wiley, Andrea S. (1994) Birthweight,
infant mortality, and high altitude adaptation in the Himalaya.
American Journal of
Wiley, Andrea S. (1994) Neonatal and
maternal anthropometric characteristics in a high altitude Himalayan
population.
Wiley, Andrea S. (1993) Evolution, Adaptation,
and the role of Biocultural Medical Anthropology. Medical
Anthropology
Wiley, Andrea S. (1992) Adaptation and the
Biocultural Paradigm in Medical Anthropology: A Critical Review.
Medical
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Education: Ph.D. Medical Anthropology, University of California Berkeley and San Francisco M.A., Anthropology, M.A. Demography, University of California, Berkeley B.A. Biological Basis of Behavior, University of Pennsylvania |
| Andrea Wiley with friends in Ladakh, India |
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Courses Taught: Medical Anthropology; Anthropology of Diet and Nutrition; Introduction to Biological Anthropology; Human Ecology, Evolution of Human Behavior, Birth, Death, Sex: Exploring Demography |
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Research Interests: I originally became interested in anthropology as an undergraduate when I discovered that the discipline would afford me a unique opportunity to merge my interests in the social and biological sciences. Hence my approach to anthropological questions is distinctly biocultural – I am interested in how biology affects culture, how culturally patterned behavior affects biology, and how these forces interact over time. I make extensive use of an evolutionary perspective in both my research and teaching, which means that I consider how biology and behavior can be considered adaptive. I apply this approach to problems related to health, disease, demography, diet and nutrition, and human social behavior. My two main areas of research are in reproductive health and diet and nutrition. Reproductive health: I have conducted long term research on maternal-child health issues, within the ecological and cultural context of the Tibetan plateau of the high altitude Himalaya in India. I have been particularly concerned with how both the ecological challenges inherent to this environment (e.g., hypoxia) as well as culturally prescribed patterns of behavior affect maternal and infant health. In addition, I am interested in how very high rates of infant death can be understood and have implications for emotional development (i.e., attachment) and household kinship relations. This work is summarized and detailed in my book, An Ecology of High Altitude Infancy: A Biocultural Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2004) http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521536820 Diet and Nutrition: My current work is on the relationship between milk consumption and child health in the United States and in India. I am interested in testing widespread claims that milk enhances child growth, particularly in height. I have also worked on the relationship between milk consumption and age at menarche, milk consumption and how it affects children who grow particularly rapidly, and I am more broadly concerned with the relationship between milk consumption and life history parameters. That is, milk is designed to facilitate the growth and survival of juveniles within a particular mammalian species, yet cow's milk is now widely consumed by individuals of all ages. Thus the question is how this food affects human biology when consumed after infancy. I am interested in the U.S. and India because both are major producers of milk and both have cultural and/or religious traditions that privilege milk, yet the context in which milk is promoted is very different. It is also the case that there is variation in the digestive physiology necessary to consume milk after infancy, yet milk is increasingly consumed in populations with little or no history of milk consumption. How milk has become a globalized food and how this relates to population variation in milk digestion capacity is one aspect of this complex topic. |
