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The olfactory receptor gene family is the largest in the mammalian genome (and larger than any other gene family in any other species), comprising 1% of genes. Beginning with a genetic radiation in reptiles roughly 200 million years ago, terrestrial vertebrates can detect millions of odorants. Each species has an olfactory repertoire unique to the genetic makeup of that species. The human olfactory repertoire is quite diverse. Contrary to erroneously reported estimates, humans can detect millions of airborne odorants (volatiles) in quite small concentrations. We exhibit tremendous variation in our genes that control the receptors in our olfactory epithelium, and this may relate to variation in cross-cultural perception of and preference for odors. With age, humans experience differential olfactory dysfunction, with some odors remaining strong and others becoming increasingly faint. Olfactory dysfunction has been pathologically linked to depression and quality of life issues, neurodegenerative disorders, adult and childhood obesity, and decreased nutrition in elderly females. Human pheromones, a controversial subject, seem to be a natural phenomenon, with a small number identified in clinical studies. The consumer product industry (perfumes, food and beverage, and pesticides) devotes billions of dollars each year supporting olfactory research in an effort to enhance product design and marketing. With so many intersecting areas of research, anthropology has a tremendous contribution to make to this growing body of work that crosses traditional disciplinary lines and has a clear applied component. Also, anthropology could benefit from considering the power of the olfactory system in memory, behavioral and social cues, evolutionary history, mate choice, food decisions, and overall health., (Copyright © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.)

We examined nutritional and developmental instability in prehistoric Japan, using data from 49 individuals across 13 archaeological sites. Hypoplasia incidence was used as a measure of nutritional stress, and fluctuating asymmetry (of upper facial breath, orbital breadth, and orbital height) as an indirect assessment of developmental instability. Abundant resources due to a stable climate during the Middle Jomon (5,000-3,000 BP) encouraged population growth, which led to regional cultural homogeneity and complexity. A population crash on Honshu in the Late/Final Jomon (roughly 4,000-2,000 BP) led to regionally divergent subsistence economies and settlement patterns. We find that the nutritional stress was consistent between periods, but developmental instability (DI) decreased in the Late/Final Jomon. While the DI values were not statistically significant, the higher values for Middle Jomon may result from sedentism, social stratification, and differential access to resources. On Hokkaido, Jomon culture persisted until the Okhotsk period (1,000-600 BP), marked by the arrival of immigrants from Sakhalin. Nutritional stress was consistent between Middle and Late/Final Jomon, but DI increased in the Late/Final. Nutritional and developmental instability decreased from Late/Final to Okhotsk, suggesting a positive immigrant effect. We expected to find an association between stress markers due to the synergistic relationship between nutrition and pathology. The data support this hypothesis, but only one finding was statistically significant. While high critical values from small sample sizes place limits on the significance of our results, we find that the impact of environmental and cultural change to prehistoric Japanese populations was minimal., ((c) 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.)