Chapter 8 Assignment

For this assignment, you will answer questions about Chapter 8.

STEP 1: Read

Read Chapter 8: Infectious Disease. (Only required to read sections: The introduction, “How Pathogens Spread,” “Human-Pathogen Coevolution,” “Malaria: A Postagricultural Disease,” “Evolutionary Changes in Pathogens”; “Allergies and Asthma…” of our textbook. You can skip other sections.)

STEP 2: Write your Answers

Please write your answers to the following in sentence form.

1. Until about 10,000 years ago, all human populations lived as nomadic, small-scale, hunter-gatherer communities. Around 10,000 years ago, some groups started to rely on agriculture and animal domestication. Today, agriculture and domesticated animals dominate the global food system. What impact has agriculture and animal domestication had on infectious diseases in human populations?

2. How has exposure to malaria been linked to sickle cell anemia in some communities? How have changes to human social structure (many communities starting to rely on horticulture instead of hunting/gathering) contributed to this evolutionary case?
3. Why have rates of asthma and allergies skyrocketed in industrialized countries? What is the hygiene hypothesis? 
4. Please share something else you thought was interesting from the chapter.

STEP 3: Submit your Answers

Submit your answers by clicking the blue, "Take The Quiz" button below and copying your answers into the box. Although I am using the "quiz" feature for this, it is not a quiz. This is just an assignment. Do your best, but I'm not grading you on getting the right answer; you will be graded based on your sincere attempt to answer the questions and showing that you have read/watched the information, even if you didn't understand all of it.

Please get in touch if you have any issues submitting your answers. 

STEP 4: Check Answers

After you submit your answers, click on Attempt 1 in your attempt history. You should then be able to see the correct answers to the questions. This information is meant to help you affirm that you were on the right track in understanding the information or, if not, fill gaps in your understanding. You will only be able to see the answers once, so take any notes that you want to.