Temple University 3 credits ANTH
This course explores the new field of evolutionary medicine which seeks adaptive explanations for why humans as a species are susceptible to certain diseases that are rare among other mammals. The course also asks why certain human populations are susceptible to disease and illness whereas others are not. In contrast, when physicians and biomedical researchers ask "why" a patient is sick they usually seek an explanation in the effect of a pathogen, the role of anatomical anomaly, a genetic mutation, exposure to an environmental toxin, the cause of physiological disregulation, or other proximate mechanisms including behavioral and cultural causes. Knowledge of how our biological adaptations and patterns of human biological variation contribute to disease susceptibility is beginning to inform therapeutic approaches in biomedicine and sometimes provokes extraordinary controversy and claims of racism or biological determinism. This course will conclude with a series of discussions and debates about the legitimacy of such critiques after students in the course have learned about evolutionary explanations for disease susceptibility.
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