Continuing my series on the top 10 reasons to enroll in Anthropology 207x (Introduction to Human Evolution), which officially begins on May 6th….
Previous entries:
#10 Origin stories are captivating. Scientific origin stories can be unifying.
#9 It’s open and free!
#8 Our evolutionary past informs how we understand human difference today
#7 You will be sharing the experience with 1000s of others
#6 Human evolution encompasses a fascinating set of questions, bringing together many different disciplines
Reason 5 – Human health lies at the intersection of our evolutionary past and contemporary present
Knowledge is wonderful. I love knowing things just to know them. This is perhaps one of the qualities that has led me on the career path I have chosen, and one of the reasons I have loved being affiliated with institutions of higher education for 18 years and counting. But as great as it is to know something, it is even more satisfying when you can use that knowledge in meaningful ways. One of the areas that knowledge about how evolution works, and specifically knowledge about our evolutionary past as a species, becomes useful is in understanding contemporary human health.
As an example, my father and I have both been dealing with knee problems of late. My problems began 8 months ago when our family moved, and I spent several weeks lugging boxes and awkward furniture up and down stairs and into and out of trucks. My father’s problems seem to be more chronic, relating to years of wear and tear. Knee problems are not uncommon, and both situations, mine and my father’s, seem pretty standard. Many of us face similar kinds of health issues everyday. The most typical responses people have to health problems are either to ignore them, or to go to a doctor, both of which might produce varying kinds of outcomes (at the moment, I am doing the former, while my dad is doing the latter).
If we had bird legs, my dad and I probably would not have knee problems
Questions of health like these can also be informed by understanding a little bit about our evolutionary past. In the case above, that understanding begins with knowing more about human anatomy, and the evolutionary events that have shaped our musculo-skeletal system. Our knee is a product of the compromises that went into the emergence of bipedality some five million years ago, and the evolution of a modern postcranial skeleton over the past two million years. We could interrogate the issue even further by looking at what kind of evolutionary environment shaped the knee over this time period, and how does our current reality, living in the 21st century, differ from that evolutionary past. Or we could think more critically about human gait–actually how we walk–and how we as individuals, in particular, walk. This kind of functional anatomy/biomechanic approach is commonly employed by biological anthropologists to understand our evolutionary past, but it also gives us a more informed vantage point on the present.
Perhaps instead, you are interested in the rising incidence of lyme disease in the United States. Taking an evolutionary perspective, we might have a better way of understanding the changing nature of such a human-parasite interaction. Or maybe you want to know why it seems like food allergies are so much more common than you remember as a kid? Again, an evolutionary/anthropological perspective can help.
Knowing something about evolution doesn’t make you a doctor. But it can provide you with a more informed position, allowing you to better interact with your physician. At a time when faux-science and anti-science health claims are incredibly widespread (see some examples here, here, and here). Science isn’t perfect, but scientific literary allows us to make more informed and critical decisions about a range of issues, including human health.
I will have additional updates each day between now and May 6, when the course goes live.
