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CS92PROD
Medical Anthropology
ANTH 243
Spring 2018
Section: 01   02  

Situated at the intersection of the clinical and social sciences, medical anthropology seeks to understand bodies, afflictions, healing, and care in cross-cultural contexts. This course serves as an introduction to the exciting field of medical anthropology. Students will begin by mastering dominant approaches within medical anthropology for studying the body as a site of meaning, a moral battleground, a biosocial entity, an object of regulation and control, and a tool of resistance and change. We will then turn our attention to different kinds of bodies in distress and to the therapeutic responses they invoke (or fail to invoke) from healers, doctors, kin groups, aid workers, and state actors. Of particular concern will be those aspects of healing that challenge commonsense notions of how therapies work and where they may fall short. Specific concepts and topics to be covered include illness narratives, idioms of distress, structural and symbolic violence, culture-bound syndromes, nature/nurture debates, ritual healing, high-tech medicine, and humanitarianism.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS ANTH
Course Format: SeminarGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (ANTH)
Past Enrollment Probability: 50% - 74%

Last Updated on MAR-28-2024
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