This course introduces students to the major theoretical approaches and research methods used in the field of Medical Anthropology, focusing specifically on the interrelationship between culture, illness/disease, and healing practices. A basic premise of the course is that in order to understand the interactions of illness, health, and the body, we must take into account the social and cultural environment in which they are experienced. While weexamine Western biomedical models of health, this course gives particular attention to the many alternative models that exist throughout the world. Among the topics covered in this course are: the ethics of biomedicine and medical expertise; social suffering and structural violence; pandemic behavior, cross-cultural approaches to death and dying, religion and belief systems; organ donation and transplantation; sex, gender and reproductivetechnologies; race, class and the politics of medicine. This course counts as elective credit toward the
- Teacher: Christey Carwile