Introduction to Medical Anthropology: Systems of Health and Healing

4 credits · Undergraduate credit

This course examines illness and healing in cross-cultural perspective. How do people make meaning of their suffering? What determines what is normal and what pathological? How are morality and medicine intertwined? We will examine illness and patient care within varied understandings of the body, mind, and self; consider how social, economic, and political processes shape health and illness; and ask how healing systems -including biomedicine- both reflect and influence what people "know" to be true. We will draw on a variety of examples -cancer, schizophrenia, disabilities, Alzheimer's, among others- to illustrate topics including risk, biotechnology, stigma, and inequality.