ANTH 222 - Medical Anthropology

Introduces students to medical anthropology—the study of the relationships among cultures, social systems, the environment, and disease and healing. Interpretations of health and illness, and the experience of one’s body are often taken for granted. Yet our ideas about and experiences of health, disease, and medicine are profoundly shaped by culture; by transnational flow of people, ideas, and resources; by histories of colonialism and structural inequalities; and by the development of new technologies. This course introduces students to approaches used by medical anthropologists to study the social, cultural, economic, and political dimensions of the human experience of the body, health, illness, and healing. Topics covered include cultural interpretations of sickness and healing, cultural ideas about the body, social and environmental causes of illness, the effects of poverty on health, the roles of doctors and healers in society, cultural clashes and ethical issues in health care delivery, anthropological critiques of Western biomedicine, and the place of medical anthropology in the study of public health.

Credits: 1.00
Corequisite: None
Prerequisites: None
Major/Minor Restrictions: None
Class Restriction: No First-year, No Senior
Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges
Core Component: None
Formerly: ANTH 322

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