Medical Anthropology
ANTH 243
Spring 2018
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01
02
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Situated at the intersection of the clinical and social sciences, medical anthropology seeks to understand bodies, afflictions, healing, and care in cross-cultural contexts. This course serves as an introduction to the exciting field of medical anthropology. Students will begin by mastering dominant approaches within medical anthropology for studying the body as a site of meaning, a moral battleground, a biosocial entity, an object of regulation and control, and a tool of resistance and change. We will then turn our attention to different kinds of bodies in distress and to the therapeutic responses they invoke (or fail to invoke) from healers, doctors, kin groups, aid workers, and state actors. Of particular concern will be those aspects of healing that challenge commonsense notions of how therapies work and where they may fall short. Specific concepts and topics to be covered include illness narratives, idioms of distress, structural and symbolic violence, culture-bound syndromes, nature/nurture debates, ritual healing, high-tech medicine, and humanitarianism. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS ANTH |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (ANTH) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 50% - 74% |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Readings will include articles and ethnographic works by Peter Brown, Lorna Rhodes, Janelle Taylor, Paul Farmer, João Biehl, Emily Martin, Claire Wendland, Arthur Kleinman, Adriana Petryna, and Nancy Scheper-Hughes, among others.
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Examinations and Assignments:
Three essays, in-class midterm exam, and take-home final |
| Instructor(s): Worthington,Nancy Hayden Times: .M.W... 08:20AM-09:40AM; Location: ANTH6; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: 2 | JR major: 5 | | |
| Seats Available: 1 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 0 | JR non-major: 0 | SO: 5 | FR: 3 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 2 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 1 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 1 |
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