Biocultural and evolutionary approaches to the study of human diseases: Integrative perspectives from biological anthropology.

This article, published in the American Journal of Biological Anthropology, explores the role of biological anthropology in understanding the origins, nature, and consequences of human diseases. The authors highlight the importance of using both comparative/evolutionary and biocultural approaches to study how social and ecological factors influence disease exposure and impact. The collection of papers covers a range of topics, including the impact of infectious and non-communicable diseases in the past, the health of indigenous populations before and after European contact, mortality patterns during the 1918 influenza pandemic, disease transmission in non-human primates, and the biocultural determinants of health outcomes in contemporary populations. The research presented in this article provides valuable insights into the complex relationship between human biology, disease ecology, and social factors. [Extracted from the article]