Disease in Prehistory

Disease in Prehistory

Anthropology 275

Tuesday and Friday 10:50 AM- 12:05 PM
PH311

Professor: Kate Pechenkina, Ph. D.
office: Powdermaker Hall 312A
telephone: (718) 997-5529
e-mail:
office hours: Wednesday 9:30 - 11:30 AM

This course is a general introduction to the field of paleopathology. Paleopathology is a subfield of biological anthropology that encompasses the study of disease in antiquity using a variety of sources of information, including human mummified and skeletal remains, ancient documents, illustrations from early books, painting and sculpture from the past, and analysis of coprolites. We will begin by examining the concept of disease and the basic diagnostic criteria for different categories of disease. Next, we will focus on infectious diseases and examine their origins, the environmental factors that have affected their spread in human populations, and their impact on human cultures. We will then take a close look at human dietary adaptations and the physiological disorders associated with different subsistence practices. After the mid-term exam we will then go on to address heritable diseases and the role of environmental factors in their origin and evolution. That will be followed by an examination of the process of senescence, degenerative diseases, and traumas in communities whose contrasting resource procurement strategies result in different modes of regular physical activity. In a comprehensive review at the end of the semester, we will discuss global trends in community health and how the distribution of several disease groups was affected by increasing sedentism and settlement nucleation, the development of agriculture, agricultural intensification, urbanization, colonial expansion, and industrialization.
Grading
Your grade will be based on midterm and final exams, and four short quizzes, participation and reading assignments:
Lecture Quiz/Exam Schedule

Reading reports and participation	20 %
Quizzes	20 %
Midterm (10/19)	30 % covers lectures 1-13
Final (12/20, 9 AM - 10:30 AM)	30 % covers lectures 14-28

Reading reports: Reports on the assigned readings are expected at the beginning of each class. The course pack is composed of research papers, book chapters, and excerpts from the popular literature. Some of the research articles are very technical and you may find them difficult to follow. In such cases, please try to read with an eye toward understanding the general theme(s) and conclusions of the article without worrying too much about the details. I will provide you with a few specific questions to help further guide your reading. You are expected to incorporate your answers to those questions into your reading reports. Reports on the literature assigned for that day are due at the beginning of each class. Each reading report should be approximately a page long, typed in Times New Roman, 12 pt. font, 1.5 spaced, printed with 1 inch margins. It should begin with a proper bibliographic citation of the literary source and should provide a brief summary and critique of the paper, article, or book chapter. Late reports are accepted for 60% of the total credit. By the end of the semester you will be expected to have submitted reports for a total of 20 papers, articles, or book chapters.

Syllabus

Lecture	Date	Topic	Reading
1	8/28	Class introduction, classification of diseases.
2	8/31	Basic terminology see hand-out	Roberts & Manchaester 1995: Ch 1 Reading report 1
3	9/4	Biology of skeletal tissue	Robling & Stout 2000 Reading Report 2
4	9/7	Quiz 1(human skeleton) Types of skeletal lesions and their interpretation	Lovell 2000 Reading Report 3
5	9/11	Infectious diseases and immune system, co-evolution	Larsen ch. 3 Diamond 1999: Ch 11. Reading Report 4
	9/14	No class
6	9/18	Tuberculosis and leprosy	Ortner 2003, Chapter 10 Mostowy & Behr: 2005 Reading Report 5
	9/21	No class
7	9/25	Tuberculosis in the New World	Gómez i Prat & Mendonça de Souza 2003 Reading Report 6
8	9/28	Treponematosis, origin of venereal syphilis	Baker & Armelagos 1988 Quetel 1-49
9	10/2	Quiz 2 (infections and immune system) Archaeoparasitology	Carvalho Goncalves et al. 2002 Martinson et al. 2003 Reading Report 7
10	10/5	Archioparasitology, cntd. Schistosome life cycle	Reading Report 8
11	10/9	Viral Infections: Smallpox, Rubella, HIV Life Cycle of HIV	Hutchinson 2001 Reading Report 9
12	10/12	Adaptations to nutrition and diet, thrifty genotype	Stinson 1992 Reading Report 10
13	10/16	Physiological stress: anemia, scurvy, rickets	Larsen chapter 2
	10/19	MIDTERM	Reading Report 11
14	10/23	Physiological stress in prehistory, osteological paradox	Blom et la. 2005 Write and Chew 1999 Reading Report 12
15	10/26	Degenerative diseases and mechanical stress	Roberts & Manchester. 1995. Ch 6. Rogers and Waldron 2001 Reading Report 13
16	10/30	Traumatic injury, fractures	Lovell 1997 Reading Report 14
17	11/2	Traumas cntd., birth and birth complications	Arriaza et al 1988 Ortner 119-163
18	11/6	Artificial body modifications and trephinations Ancient medical practices	Reading Report 15 Ortner 163-174 Levy 1966: Ch.1 and 8.
19	11/9	Quiz 3 (fractures, artif. body modifications, osteoporosis) Violence in prehistory	Larsen 1997: 109-160 Reading Report 16
20	11/13	Early Homo. Diseases during the Paleolithic	Berger and Trinkaus 1995 Anton 1997
21	11/16	Early Homo sapiens. Disease during the Upper Paleolithic	Formicola and Buzhilova 2004 Formicola et al. 2001 Reading Report 17
	11/20	No Class: Thursday schedule
22	11/21	Effects of increasing sedentism; diseases of early farmers	Larsen 1998 Reading Report 18
	11/23	Thanksgiving recess
23	11/27	Social status and health, urbanism	Danforth 1999 Robb et al. 2001 Reading Report 19
24	11/30	Quiz 4 (diseases of early humans) New diseases, transatlantic exchanges	Palkovich 1994. Reading Report 20
25	12/04	Vaccination and antibiotics, diseases in the 17th - 19th centuries	Hays 1998, pp 106-134
26	12/07	Epidemiology of the last 50 years	Barrett et al. 1998
27	12/11	REVIEW
	12/20	FINAL 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM

Recommended books:
Hays, J. N. 1998. The Burdens of Disease: Epidemics and Human Response in Western History. New Brunswick, N.J. Rutgers University Press. An electronic book accessible through the World Wide Web: http://www.netlibrary.com/
Larsen, C. S. and G. R. Milner (editors) 1994. In the wake of contact. New York: Wiley-Liss.
Larsen, C. S. 1997. Bioarchaeology. Interpreting behavior from the human skeleton. Cambridge: University Press.
Levy, H. S. 1966. Chinese footbinding. The history of a curious erotic custom. New York: Walton Rawls.
Roberts, C. and K. Manchester. 1995. The archaeology of Disease. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Quetel, C. 1990. The history of syphilis. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Diamond, J. 1999. Guns, germs, and steel. New York: W. W. Norton.
Ortner, D. J. 2003. Identification of pathological conditions in human skeletal remains. Second Edition. Amsterdam: Academic Press.