Anth425

An introduction to the field of medical anthropology, with particular emphasis on intersections
of cultural beliefs and practices associated with medicines, healing, health, the body, and the political economy of health.

Syllabus:

Students will begin the term learning about the wide variety of health and healing concepts such as those fundamental to Humoral medicine (Ancient Greece, Mexico), Traditional Chinese Medicine (China), Ayurveda (India), Biomedicine (Euro-America), Homeopathy (Euro-America), La’au lapa’au (Hawai’i) and Faito’o Fakatonga (Tonga).

At midterm we will change focus to consider the ways in which historic, economic, social, environmental and cultural factors shape the lived experience of health, sickness, healing, and medical knowledge production.

Key themes will include: What is the role of ecology in sickness and health? What is ‘alternative’ medicine? Who gets sick, where, and why them? Whose children survive and whose do not? How is sickness different from illness and disease? What is the role of the physician/healer/shaman/curer, and how is their knowledge produced in different contexts? How are normal life events - such as pregnancy, birth, aging and death - medicalized? How do gender, age, sexuality, ethnicity, race and class figure in diagnoses and treatment? What are medical pluralism, medical syncretism and medical cosmopolitanism? How is technology related to diagnosis and treatment? What is the relationship of globalization, modernity and indigeneity in the transformation and resurgence of "traditional" healing practices and beliefs?

Link to Class Schedule & Readings:

Link to Class Powerpoint

Grades:

Analysis essay:                                                     25 pts
Class Participation:                                                10 pts
Midterm Exam:                                                      25 pts
Final Exam:                                                             40 pts

Required Texts:

Leslie, Charles and Alan Young, Eds
1992    Paths to Asian Medical Knowledge. University of California Press

Hellman, Cecil G.
2000    Culture, Health and Illness. Boston: Butterworth Heinemann Press.

And One of the following (your choice):

Fadiman, Anne
1997    The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. New York, Farrar, Straus & Giroux

or:
Drowzdow-St. Christian, Douglas
2002    Elusive Fragments: Making Power, Propriety and Health in Samoa.

or:
Farmer, Paul
1999    Infections and Inequalities; The Modern Plagues. Berkeley, U. California Press.

Recommended Text (if you are serious about Medical Anthropology):

Patricia K Townsend, Ann McElroy
2003 Medical Anthropology In Ecological Perspective, Fourth Edition. Westview Press

	An introduction to the field of medical anthropology, with particular emphasis on intersections of cultural beliefs and practices associated with medicines, healing, health, the body, and the political economy of health.

Syllabus: Students will begin the term learning about the wide variety of health and healing concepts such as those fundamental to Humoral medicine (Ancient Greece, Mexico), Traditional Chinese Medicine (China), Ayurveda (India), Biomedicine (Euro-America), Homeopathy (Euro-America), La’au lapa’au (Hawai’i) and Faito’o Fakatonga (Tonga). At midterm we will change focus to consider the ways in which historic, economic, social, environmental and cultural factors shape the lived experience of health, sickness, healing, and medical knowledge production. Key themes will include: What is the role of ecology in sickness and health? What is ‘alternative’ medicine? Who gets sick, where, and why them? Whose children survive and whose do not? How is sickness different from illness and disease? What is the role of the physician/healer/shaman/curer, and how is their knowledge produced in different contexts? How are normal life events - such as pregnancy, birth, aging and death - medicalized? How do gender, age, sexuality, ethnicity, race and class figure in diagnoses and treatment? What are medical pluralism, medical syncretism and medical cosmopolitanism? How is technology related to diagnosis and treatment? What is the relationship of globalization, modernity and indigeneity in the transformation and resurgence of "traditional" healing practices and beliefs? Link to Class Schedule & Readings: Link to Class Powerpoint Grades: Analysis essay: 25 pts Class Participation: 10 pts Midterm Exam: 25 pts Final Exam: 40 pts Required Texts: Leslie, Charles and Alan Young, Eds 1992 Paths to Asian Medical Knowledge. University of California Press Hellman, Cecil G. 2000 Culture, Health and Illness. Boston: Butterworth Heinemann Press. And One of the following (your choice): Fadiman, Anne 1997 The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. New York, Farrar, Straus & Giroux or: Drowzdow-St. Christian, Douglas 2002 Elusive Fragments: Making Power, Propriety and Health in Samoa. or: Farmer, Paul 1999 Infections and Inequalities; The Modern Plagues. Berkeley, U. California Press. Recommended Text (if you are serious about Medical Anthropology): Patricia K Townsend, Ann McElroy 2003 Medical Anthropology In Ecological Perspective, Fourth Edition. Westview Press