Disease and epidemics have been powerful agents of historical change as well as determinants of human development before the advent of historical records. In this lecture course we will examine how diseases have changed human societies over time, with special attention given to the place of disease-causing organisms, from viruses to parasites, in the ecological networks they make home. Yet at the same time, we will keep in mind the ways in which human society and culture also have important causal roles in human disease. HIV, for example, arose because of human interactions with animals but reached pandemic proportions, in part, because of cultural, social, and political forces. |