Damon to Study Solomon Islands

Why don't Solomon islanders get hypertension, coronary diseases, and other ailments of modern society? The National Institute of Health has awarded a grant to Dr. Albert Damon '38, fellow in Medical Anthropology, in order to find out.

Damon will receive $68,544 to cover first-year expenses of a proposed seven-year study of Solomon Island societies "to relate culture to disease, and vice versa."

In his application for the grant, Damon emphasized the importance of beginning the study quickly because true native societies are dying out in the modern world.

Douglas L. Oliver '34, chairman of the Anthropology Department, conceived the project. It will send a team of biomedical students, social anthropologists, and physical scientists to the Solomons this summer for data on two or three primitive cultures. The data will be processed and analyzed next winter.

Specialists in the group will investigate ailments such as hypertension and coronary heart disease, which are found in more advanced societies, but absent in Solomon Island cultures.

The team will investigate the data in laboratories spread around the world. Several participants will conduct a graduate seminar based on the findings at Harvard next spring.

Damon hopes to obtain further grants to cover the costs of the full program.