Cultures of Health in Latin America

3 units

This course is a survey of the cultural and political-economic aspects of health, illness, and embodied difference in Latin America. We will approach these themes from an interdisciplinary perspective with an emphasis on anthropology and history, exploring how local, national, regional, and global factors affect health and healthcare and how people experience and respond to them. Topics will include interactions between traditional healing practices and biomedicine; the lasting impacts of eugenic sciences on contemporary ideas about race and disability; the unequal impacts of epidemic disease; Indigenous cosmologies and healing systems; the politics of access to healthcare; the cultural and political specificities of reproductive health; and the intersections of race, gender, ethnicity, class, and bodily capacities in the pursuit of well-being. This course is designed for students of all levels interested in health and/or Latin American cultures. It will be taught in English.