ANT 4370 - Paleopathology (3)

When Offered: Fall. Alternate years
Paleopathology is an evolutionary and biocultural approach to health and disease in ancient human populations. This field of inquiry is increasingly recognized for contributing important insights on the origin and co-evolution of infectious diseases, fetal and developmental origins of disease, and basic research on human variation and adaptive evolution. This course covers the history of this discipline, ethical and theoretical frameworks, basic skeletal biology, patterns of human growth and developmental disturbances, disease mechanisms and processes, differential diagnosis, and evolved responses to physiological insult. Course content includes case studies, laboratory and analytical techniques, and an applied project that reconstructs the life course and ‘osteobiography’ of an individual skeleton. This course emphasizes presentation and writing skills, in addition to practical, diagnostic and lab-based skills.