ANTH 3530 - Culture, Illness, and Health

Goals: To introduce students to the subdiscipline of medical anthropology, and to study health, illness, and healing from a cross-cultural perspective.

Content: The study of affliction and healing in non-Western as well as Western societies; ways in which the social construction of well-being affects therapy managing strategies across a range of human societies; analysis of how power is utilized to privilege some sectors and deprive other groups of basic standards of community health; and the meaning of signs of sickness and suffering as a way of interpreting their relationship to broader social themes including technology, ritual, and religion. The course is designed to provide students with a framework for understanding the historical and social construction of healing practices and beliefs.

Taught: Alternate years.

Prerequisites: Previous coursework in anthropology or the social sciences.

Credits: 4 credits