a bunch of rambling about how cool anthropology is

So in addition to my Tropical Ecology class, I am also taking a class right now called Organization, Community Development, and Environment. It is classified as an anthropology class and it is one of the coolest classes I have ever taken.

Anthropology is the study of humans, and can be broken down into the subcategories of biology, linguistics, archeology, and cultural/social. My professor, Diego, is one of the most interesting people I have ever met. He has his PhD in medical anthropology and it seems like he knows the answer to any question I ever have. He is making me want to get a degree in medical anthropology!

Medical anthropology is the study of how humans have culturally evolved medically. This can be how they either create or combat diseases, prevalence vs. incidence, how networks are created, systems of medicine (formal vs. traditional), and more! One example that I found really cool was the selection for being heterozygous for sickle cell anemia in Africa. If you have sickle cell anemia, you have a better chance of surviving malaria. However, you still will die from sickle cell anemia. If you have normal red blood cells, you will die from malaria. So nature has selected for people who are heterozygous for the disease, because those people had the best chance of surviving both malaria and the disease.

Anthropology is just so cool in general! There are only 3 of us in the class, so we just sit in Diego's office and discuss political, economic, and social issues. Some of my favorite things we have discussed are linguistic relativism, selective traits, to what extent we can define a race vs. an ethnic group, evolutionary psychology, how races are actually cultural constructs, whether we are selfish vs. altruistic animals, and how we cognitively construct our own world. It was fascinating to really see how norms are not given, they are created by us.  Sorry for all the rambling, but basically anthropology is the coolest thing ever. I actually got accepted for an internship in anthropology this summer in Malta, but had to turn it down because of the MCAT. I so wish Siena had anthropology classes! (and I didn't have to take the MCAT)