The Coevolution of Humanity and Infectious Disease

This Element is an excerpt from Germs, Genes, & Civilization: How Epidemics Shaped Who We Are Today (9780137019960) by David P. Clark. Available in print and digital formats.

From hunter-gatherers to agricultural societies and beyond: How humans and disease have evolved together.

Patterns of infection vary greatly between hunter-gatherers and settled agricultural societies. Two major factors are intertwined: low population size and high mobility. Ancient hunter-gatherers almost certainly had much less infectious disease than we have today. Before dense human populations grew, most of our epidemic diseases did not exist. Furthermore, small, mobile, relatively isolated tribes would rarely have been infected by contact with others.

David P. Clark is Professor in the Microbiology Department at Southern Illinois University. He has published 70+ articles in scientific journals and is author of several college textbooks, including Brock Biology of Microorganisms, now in its 12th edition; Molecular Biology Made Simple and Fun, now in its 3rd edition; Molecular Biology: Understanding the Genetic Revolution; and Biotechnology: Applying the Genetic Revolution. Clark earned his Ph.D. from Bristol University in 1977. His research has focused on antibiotic resistance and the genetics and regulation of bacterial fermentation.