The Biology of Inequality

1 Course Unit

What is a more important predictor of how long you will live, the genes you inherit from your parents or the zip code where you were raised? In this class, we will try to answer this question and others regarding the origins of social disparities in health in the US. The course will also consider the broader global context, and ask why the US spends so much money on health care, but lags behind many nations in key indicators of population health. We will examine how social stratification by race/ ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, education, and neighborhood quality shapes our biology and the health status of individuals, families, and populations; and, conversely, how health itself can be a fundamental determinant of key social outcomes such as educational achievement. This class takes a biocultural perspective seeking to understand how social inequalities interact with human biology; especially nutrition, health, and physiological stress. The course begins by reviewing perspectives on various forms of inequality and the ways inequalities become embodied as biology (including a review of biological systems and processes), and introduces several overlapping biocultural models that have emerged from anthropology and public health. A series of readings and case studies follow that link some aspect of human biology (nutrition, health, reproduction, psychosocial stress) to poverty and inequalities, and try to present both quantitative and qualitative aspects of these linkages, as well as how inequalities and poor health reinforce and reproduce each other. In order to be successful, this class requires engagement, participation, and discussion. Not Offered Every Year 1 Course Unit