ANTHROP 708 / Anthropology of Infectious Disease

3 unit(s)

Infectious diseases play a disproportionate role in the shaping of human evolution (selection), communities (stigma, blame) and culture (pop-cult references, etc.). By default, they also play a role in the pathogen’s evolutionary history (virulence and transmission) and its ‘anthropology’ (since microbes are anthropomorphised). That interplay, between host-pathogen, broadly labelled as infectious diseases, can be studied at various levels in the past using various methodologies (e.g human remains, archives, and DNA) and present. This course will explore the theoretical underpinnings of the anthropology and evolution of infectious diseases and discuss various approaches to the study of infectious disease.