Medical Anthropology

I was able to take one class in Medical Anthropology--because that's all that was available at that time! It is the study of a population and its diseases. The job of a Medical Anthropologist is to try and figure out why the disease is prevalent in the population. One example I remember is why Chinese peoples were plagued with throat cancer; and they figured out that they were eating diseased chickens--and that was the answer!

Now if I were to study medical anthropology today and work on the U.S. then I would find it difficult task because the gene pool is so varied that the disease culprit may affect the different gene pools differently. For example, hypothetically, a German woman may exhibit breast cancer from GMO produce while a African woman may get heart disease? We are, after all, a melting pot!