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Despite the scorn for science promulgated by some in the later twentieth century, biological medical anthropologists continued to attract students and quietly made substantial progress. They could afford to be quiet: Many journals outside of anthropology gladly accept their work. Importantly, in terms of tenure and promotion, many of the extra-anthropological journals that welcome biological anthropology have higher impact factors than those of the home discipline. Publications in such journals also can “count” more on grant applications, thereby helping assure a steadier stream of funding.

In the 1970s, the term “biomedical” had been applied to biologically oriented work with fairly immediate clinical applications or relevance for investigations of universal (albeit perhaps locally expressed) biological or disease processes. As time wore on, political ecology, which acknowledges that power relations affect the ways that human groups handle their natural environments (e.g., water, soil), and documents the health ramifications thereof, grew increasingly popular. While its treatment of culture was rudimentary, political ecology did offer an alternative to the narrower adaptationist perspective promoted by some environmentally oriented anthropologists.