ABSTRACT
The word "civilization" usually brings forth images of moral, spiritual, artistic, and intellectual achievement and progress. Perhaps the single most important principle of the epidemiology of civilization is that the success of most pathogens depends on the number and density of the host organism, that is, the victims. The adoption of sedentary habits by human populations increases the importance and particularly the intensity of infectious diseases. The domestication of animals appears to have been a major source of new human diseases. Domestic animals may simply bring zoonotic diseases with them when they enter human society, or, remaining semi-wild, they may act as a continuous bridge between wild and human communities. The logic of microorganisms combined with the evidence of skeletons and ethnographic observations of small scale societies, all suggest that disease has increased in significance as a contributor to both morbidity and mortality as populations have become more civilized.
