Listed in: Anthropology and Sociology, as ANTH-245
Formerly listed as: ANTH-45
Christopher T. Dole (Section 01)
The aim of this course is to introduce the ways that medical anthropologists understand illness, suffering, and healing as taking shape amidst a complex interplay of biological, psychological, social, political-economic, and environmental processes. The course is designed to engage a broad range of medical anthropology topics, theoretical approaches, and research techniques by examining case studies concerned with such issues as chronic illness and social suffering, ritual and religious forms of healing, illness and inequality, medicalization, the global AIDS crisis, the social life of new medical technologies, and the politics of global health and humanitarian intervention. A basic premise of the course is that an understanding of illness, health, and the body requires an understanding of the contexts in which they are experienced, contexts contingently shaped by interwoven processes of local, national, and global significance. Particular emphasis will thus be placed on ethnographic approaches to the lived context in which illness and other forms of suffering are experienced, narrated, and addressed. Our focus will be comparative, treating illness, suffering, and healing in a range of societies and settings--from Haiti to China, from urban Brazil to rural Nepal, from the townships of South Africa to genetic labs in the United States.
Limited to 30 students. Spring semester. Professor C. Dole.
Section 01
M 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM FAYE 117
W 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM FAYE 117
This is preliminary information about books for this course. Please contact your instructor or the Academic Coordinator for the department, before attempting to purchase these books.
| ISBN | Title | Publisher | Author(s) | Comment | Book Store | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Markets of Sorrow, Labors of Faith | Adams, Vincanne | Amherst Books | TBD | |||
| Testing Women, Testing the Fetus | Rapp, Rayna | Amherst Books | TBD | |||
| Our Bodies Belong to God: Organ Transplants, Islam, and the Struggle for Human Dignity | Hamdy, Sherine | Available as free e-book at Frost | Amherst Books | TBD |
These books are available locally at Amherst Books.