Studies of human biology of vanishing primitive societies focus on neurological development and learning patterns in diverse cultural experiments in the human condition found in such isolated groups. Opportunistic investigation of problems phrased by man in isolation is the basis of approach from which all our studies have evolved. Techniques of molecular biology, immunology, virology, endocrinology and biochemistry and field epidemiological, clinical, linguistic and behavioral studies in cultural isolates and genetic and/or geographically isolated primitive bands yield more easily interpretable data than in cosmopolitan societies. Data and specimens collected on expeditions to Micronesia, Polynesia, Solomon Islands, New Hebrides, New Guinea, Indonesia, South America, Asia and Africa are used. Studies on nutrition, reproduction, fertility, neuroendocrine influences on age of sexual maturation and aging, genetic polymorphisms, genetic distance, unusual and odd employment of the higher cerebral functions in language learning, cognitive styles, computation (calculation with- out words or numbers) and culturally modified sexual behavior elucidate alternative forms of neurologic functioning for man which we would be unable to investigate once the natural cultural experiments in primitive human isolates are amalgamated into the cosmopolitan community of man. Foci of high incidence of kuru, ALS/PD, epilepsy, spastic paraparesis, familial parkinsonism, other CNS degenerations, hysterical disorders, schizophrenia, neoplasms, goiter, cretinism, rheumatoid diseases, diabetes, asthma, chronic lung disease, malaria, filariasis, leprosy, cysticercosis, and other infections are investigated. Zoonoses such as hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome in China, Japan, Korea, USSR, Scandinavia, and the Balkans are studied including these newly recognized Bunyawera viruses in the U.S. Acquired immune deficiency syndrome studied by our group in 1950-1960 have been reinitiated. Human evolution and adaptability to high altitude, excessively wet or arid climes, variable food supply, mineral deficiencies, toxic exposures and responses to severe diseases or social/psychological stress are under investigation in appropriate population isolates.
