The Human Biology of the English Village

This survey details many aspects of the human biology of a group of villages in the Otmoor region of Oxfordshire, which were studied over a 15-year period. First, the historical demography of the region was reconstructed using its parish records. This enabled changing patterns of population size, fertility, mortality, movement and migration to be documented, and predictions to be made about current genetic structure. These predictions were tested by studies of the biological variety in the present day populations, which measured gene frequency distributions and a number of anthropometric and psychometric traits. The role of these latter characteristics in influencing such phenomena as marriage and social mobility were also analyzed. Further studies examined the health and well-being of today's inhabitants, in which lifestyle characteristics were described and their possible effects on stress levels, sleep patterns and morbidity histories identified. The book thus provides a unique account of life in an English village from a biological point of view.