Module ANTH3527: EVOLUTIONARY MEDICINE: MATERNAL & INFANT HEALTH

Department: Anthropology

ANTH3527: EVOLUTIONARY MEDICINE: MATERNAL & INFANT HEALTH

Prerequisites

• Ecology, Genomics and Health (ANTH2011) OR Sex, Reproduction and Love (ANTH2111)

Corequisites

• A 10 credit ANTH module taught in an alternate term.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• To expose students to the perspective of evolutionary medicine and to encourage the critical appraisal of western biomedicine in the light of evolutionary theory as related to birth, early life and parenting issues.

Content

• Evolutionary medicine takes the view that many contemporary health issues are related to an incompatibility between the lifestyles and environments in which humans currently live and the conditions under which human biology evolved.
• This module explores the ways in which questions about reproductive and infant health and disease can be reframed in consideration of an evolutionary perspective and new suggestions about treatment can be made.
• Specific areas to be covered include maternal health (e.g. child-birth, post-natal depression, maternal depletion) and infant health (e.g. thermoregulation, colic, SIDS, infant sleep, feeding and weaning).

Learning Outcomes

• Students should be able to: Understand and explain the application of evolutionary perspectives to a variety of contemporary maternal and infant health issues.
• Understand the value of a cross-cultural perspective in informing evolutionary medicine.

• Articulate how an evolutionary perspective to maternal and infant health might inform current health care practices and interventions and synthesise material.
• Be able to evaluate evolutionary explanations of maternal and infant health issues and be able to articulate how these may be tested.

• Ability to discuss issues and solve problems using multiple approaches.
• Ability to translating academic knowledge into public interventions.
• Ability to engage in discussion and debate on theoretical and practical issues.
• Ability to present verbal summaries of data and theoretical perspectives based on readings of academic literature.
• Ability to present written summaries of debates and argue for a particular perspective using research based evidence.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Seminars will introduce a different health issue each session and present students with various examples of evolutionary interpretations.
• Seminars will guide students to further reading on each area.
• Seminars will engage students in discussion of their reading of academic literature.
• Tutorials (small group teaching) will use a problem solving approach in which students will present the results of their own research to explore maternal and infant health topics using evolutionary perspectives.
• Formative and summative coursework will be used to consolidate students' ability to explain and articulate evolutionary perspectives on health.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Tutorial write-up. Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University