The 15th Congress of the European Anthropological Association, held under the title "MAN AND ENVIRONMENT: TRENDS AND CHALLENGES IN ANTHROPOLOGY", was organized by the Department of Biological Anthropology, Eoetvoes Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary. The Congress was also a celebration of the 125th anniversary of the founding of the Department of Biological Anthropology of the university. The Congress strived to encompass all aspects of physical anthropology pertinent to the understanding of human origins as well as the variability of ancient and present populations. The main topic was: Man and Environment in the Past and at Present - Trends and Challenges in Anthropology. At the beginning of the 21st century it seemed important to summarize what we had learned in the last hundred years in order to help our younger colleagues in physical anthropology in understanding the current trends and to provide them with suggestions for their future research. The present volume contains a collection of the selected papers presented in the congress. The first section discusses some aspects of the human evolution and adaptation and reflects on the race concept. The second section discusses some skeletal variations in different populations and the effects of isolation, migration and life-style on genetic structure of populations. The third session gives an overview of the current state of our knowledge about growth and ageing that may mould our general approach to human ecology. This book will be especially useful physical anthropologists, human biologists, human geneticist, medical and bio-demographical scientists interested in knowing more about human variability.