Natural Science 0223 - An Introduction to Medical Anthropology

This course is an introduction to the rich and growing field of medical anthropology: its theories, methods, and applications. Course materials will include full length ethnographies as well as a variety of shorter texts and visual work. Topics will include the culture of medicine, the experience of illness, immigration, embodiment, caregiving, addiction, violence, and humanitarian intervention. We will focus on how ethnographic research and social theory can enrich understanding of (and raise issues about) medicine and public health that are often left out of other disciplinary approaches. We will also consider attempts to improve individual and population health, and possibilities for wellbeing more generally. Throughout, we will emphasize two elements: 1) the vantage point of the local worlds in which people experience, narrate, and respond to illness and other forms of suffering; and 2) the ways in which large-scale forces contribute to such local experience. Keywords:care, health, medicine, public health, anthropology

Students should expect to spend 6-8 hours weekly on work and preparation outside of class time