Ampersand: Medicine and Society

3 units

This course provides the basic foundation in medical anthropology and cultural anthropology for students enrolled in the Medicine and Society Program. The purpose of the course is to introduce students to the central themes and theoretical approaches employed by medical anthropologists to study health and illness in cross-cultural perspective. Topical areas include analyses of disease, illness and sickness at micro and macro levels; impact of personal and interpersonal factors on health; health effects of social, political, and economic factors; relationship of anthropology to biological and social science approaches; ecology of health and development; and cross-cultural health studies of language, gender, and race/ethnicity. Note: Content for this course overlaps with and replaces Anth 160 for students enrolled in the Medicine and Society Program. Open only to students enrolled in the Medicine and Society Program.