There were many subfields of anthropology that I discovered that were interesting to me, although, the sub field that I came across that interested me the most is Paleopathology. According to the Paleopathology Association, “Paleopathology is the study of ancient diseases in humans and animals.” The Official Journal of the Paleopathology Association provides articles relating to research and discoveries in the paleopathology field. According to The Official Journal of the Paleopathology Association, it explores “techniques for investigating diseases and related conditions from skeletal and soft tissue remains.” This is done through observation, molecular, chemical, histological and radiographic analysis. The association was founded in 1973 and it is now a community of researchers and students. They are a group that comes together from all different backgrounds to share information and ideas in order to better understand health and disease in the past. This is important in order to continue moving forward in health and wellness.

This field is important in anthropology because it tells us how the human has evolved, changed, and adapted in our health and our physicality. Health is an extremely important thing to study and understand in order to continue discovering new methods to improve the well-being of humans. The Official Journal of the Paleopathology Association discusses ways that the methods mentioned earlier “can be applied to the reconstruction of health, disease, and life histories in the past…” Knowing this information can allow us to understand how our health has evolved and will also allow for us to determine how to improve our health. Studying these things gives us a look into the past at our ancestors and how they lived and will allow us to improve. Disease affects everyone in some way, so it is important to understand disease and how it is evolving.

Charlotte Roberts explores the importance of paleopathology in “Paleopathology and its relevance to understanding health and disease today: the impact of the environment on health, past and present.” She mentions that health problems that affect large regions or sections of society has the potential to lead to damage to the normal daily life. Paleopathology is a biocultural approach and looks at human remains while also considering the context of the remains. It is important to understand why people lived the way they did especially when using the data to help understand humans today. It has the ability to tell us about not only the humans and disease that is being looked at but the environment in which they lived as well. Paleopathology combines many different disciplines and professionals in order to answer questions about human health and disease and the way that it has evolved. Roberts explores important examples of how the discipline has helped including respiratory tract disease and rickets.

Paleopathology is much needed and has the potential to add to the understanding of humans, how they have evolved, and how they can improve human health going forward. It is very relevant to biological anthropology as it helps us not only learn about the past but also move to move forward in a positive direction in regard to health.