Environmental Interactions and Human Health

ANTHROPOLOGY 4312

This course examines key issues related to human health through the lens of human lifestyle factors and environmental modification. Students will be asked to move beyond identifying the physical manifestations of poor health to recognizing larger evolutionary, social, and ecological factors that shape disease risk across individuals and communities. Throughout the term we will explore how interactions between humans and their surroundings (and other organisms) have shaped disease patterns over time. We will also consider how the concepts we discuss relate to contemporary health challenges and how these perspectives can be applied to better address these issues going forward. In this class, human health is viewed as the result of biocultural processes. This course therefore uses an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on the methods, theories, and bodies of knowledge from various scientific disciplines, including evolutionary biology, genetics, parasitology, physiology, ecology, and medicine.
Course Attributes: EN S; BU BA; AS SSC