Anthropology Meets Epigenetics: Current and Future Directions

Abstract

ABSTRACT Anthropologists are interested in understanding patterns of human variation, whether assessed along cultural, biological, linguistic, or material metrics. Epigenetics, the study of heritable chemical modifications to DNA, is an emerging approach that could enrich modern anthropological research. Epigenetic marks can change in response to many of the processes anthropologists study—for example, migration, nutritional stress, psychosocial stress, and social inequalities, to name a few. Thus, epigenetic processes could provide a biological explanation for the embodiment of such environmental experiences. Further, given the potential for epigenetic marks to be inherited across generations, it is possible that these marks facilitate intergenerational transmission of environmental information and therefore help to shape the direction of evolutionary change. In this article, we review some of the ways in which epigenetic methods have been successfully incorporated into anthropological and related studies as well as emphasize promising future directions and challenges for the use of epigenetic data across subfields of anthropology. While epigenetic data have great potential for informing anthropological research, we emphasize that a healthy skepticism is necessary given our still‐nascent understanding of these processes. [ human biology, embodiment, methods, epigenetics ]