Alan Goodman
Weatherhead Resident Scholar 1998-1999
Peasants and Pestilence:
Connections Between Past and Present Nutrition and Health
Exploring the connections between biological well-being in the past and
present is the focus of Alan H. Goodman's work during his tenure as 1998-99
SAR resident scholar. Peasants and Pestilence: Connections Between
Past and Present Nutrition and Health, Goodman's book-in-progress,
will first review the history of efforts to link the past and present including
Darwinian (or evolutionary) medicine. Secondly, the study will link the past
and present via data on shared "stress indicators," such as infant
mortality, growth, enamel hypoplasia, and iron deficiency.
Prior "evolutionary medicine" studies often consider contemporary
infirmities to be due to discontinuities between the present and the conditions
under which humans evolved. Conversely, says Goodman, ethnoarchaeological
studies try to use information from the present to make inferences about
the past. In his work, Goodman explains, "I critically evaluate both
approaches and then present a novel one that links the human biological
condition in the past and present through commonly used indicators of physiological
stress."
Goodman sees a key challenge of this project to be demonstrating the contemporary
utility of studies of the past. "I hope to provide a fresh perspective
on the distinctly biocultural phenomena of health and nutrition and to
establish the relevance of a biocultural perspective for understanding
the human condition in both the past and present." Unlike previous "evolutionary
medicine" studies which, in Goodman's view, "emphasize the trees
of discontinuities," he will highlight insights gained from a "focus
on the forest of overlooked continuities."
As an example, Goodman points to the deadly synergy between infectious
disease and malnutrition—a major health threat to children since the
Paleolithic era that continues to be responsible for forty percent of all
deaths today. "Groups with little access to and control over power
and resources suffer the most," observes Goodman. "I explore
how these main determinants of infirmities today may help to explain health
inequalities in the past."
Goodman is uniquely positioned to undertake this synthesis due to his
active engagement in research and teaching on health and nutrition in both
past and present groups. In the 1980s, Goodman's research on stress in
contemporary populations contributed to the development of a biocultural
perspective on stress in past populations. He participated in the large-scale
international nutrition studies (Tezonteopan and Solis, Mexico; Kalama,
Egypt; and El Progresso, Guatemala) that focused on the functional consequences
of infirmities and malnutrition. "This work sensitized me to the degree
to which health and nutrition are affected by political-economic processes," reflects
Goodman. The common indicators provide a means to extrapolate from infirmities
seen today to the consequences of these same infirmities in the past.
"I hope this project will demonstrate the strength of integrating
anthropology across the borders between the past and the present, and also
across the borders between biology, local culture and ecology, and larger
political-economic processes," Goodman states.
Affiliation at time of award: Professor of Anthropology
and Director of the US Southwest/Mexico Program at Hampshire College, Amherst,
Massachusetts.
Return to Resident Scholars 1998-1999.
