HLTB21H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Working Animal, Homo Erectus, Industrial Revolution
Document Summary
Chapter 2: plagues, the price of being sedentary. With meat eating, came an increase in paratism. As nomadic hunters encountered new prey, they met new parasites and new vectors of parasites. H. habilis were replaced by homo erectus ( erect man) When the population of h. erectus left africa, some of their parasites when with them, but only those that could be transmitted from person to person. As h. erectus encountered new environments, with new kinds of animals, they were subjected to new sources of parasites. Living overtime in the same settlements caused human disease. The road to plagues: more humans, more disease. Human population was increasing that led to overcrowding which led to more diseases. Malthusian model: natural population has an optimal density. Population was near base-line for many years until it hit industrial revolution. Agriculture changed the environmental restraint so that the set point or upper limit of population size was increased.
