ANTH. 320 Health and Healing: Cross Cultural Perspectives
Fall 2007
SYLLABUS
Dr. S. Cosminsky,
Assigned
Texts
McElroy
and Townsend- Medical Anthropology in EcologicalPerspective (2004-
4th edition)
Fadiman,
Ann - The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down.
*
Readings marked by an asterisk will be available either on electronic reserve
or library reserve.
Course
Goals
The major goals of this course are:
1)
To
provide you with an understanding of various sociocultural, economic and
political factors that affect the patterns and distribution of disease through
time and space and through the life cycle.
2)
To
examine different health systems, including our own and how people cope with
illness and health in different cultural contexts .
3)
To
examine the various factors that affect access to health care
We will first look at some of the theoretical perspectives
that have been developed to look at issues of health, disease, and illness,
including the biomedical model. We will examine various sociocultural,
political, economic, and environmental factors that affect disease using
primarily an ecological perspective of your textbook, supplemented by other
perspectives. We will then examine what people do when they are sick and why by
looking at a variety of health systems or ethnomedical systems as well as how
these systems
are changing with the impact of biomedicalization and
globalization. We will use the case study of the Hmong in California to
illustrate some of the issues involved in medical pluralism and cultural
continuity and change.
Week
Sept. 5
I. Introduction: Ecological Model
and Definitions of Health and Health and Illness
McElroy and Townsend - Introduction,
Chap. 1
Sept. 10 II Interdisciplinary
Research in Health Problems; More Models and Definitions
McElroy
and Townsend - Chap. 2
*Mischler - Viewpoint: Critical
Perspectives on the Biomedical Model"
*Kleinman, A. -
"Culture, Illness and Care."
*Helman,
C - Medicine and Culture: Limits of Biomedical Explanation
Sept.
14 No Class
Sept. 17
III Ecology of Human Disease: Culture, Society and Environment
McElroy
and Townsend - Chap. 2
Film: Kuru
Sept.
24 IV Adaptation (Biological and
Cultural): Factors
McElroy and Townsend - Chap. 3, 4
*Kolata -
"!Kung Hunter-Gatherers: Feminism, Diet and
Birth Control"
*Detwyller,
K. - "Female
Circumcision"
Oct.
1 V
Nutritional Practices and Health Implications
McElroy
and Townswend - Chap. 5
*Harwood - "Hot-Cold Theory of Disease
*Scheper-Hughes
- "Death Without Weeping"
Oct. 8.
VI Culture, Ecology, and
Reproduction
Oct. 22 MIDTERM
EXAM
Oct. 24
VII Models and Definitions of Mental
Illness and Mental Health
*Rosenhahn - "Being Sane in Insane Places"
*Stix, G. -
"Listening to Culture"
*Kleinman, A - Do Psychiatric
Disorders Differ in Different Cultures
Oct. 29
VIII Stress, Illness and Healing
McElroy and
Townsend - Chap. 7
Nov. 5
IX Ethnomedicine; Alternative
Medical Systems
*Sharon -
"Eduardo the Healer"
*Lambo -
"Psychotherapy in Africa"
*Plotkin, M. - "Through the Green
Door"
Fadiman, A. - The
Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down- Preface, pp.1-153
Nov. 12
X Medical Pluralism; Health -Seeking
Behavior;
Fadiman,
A. - The Spirit Catches You
and You Fall Down- Finish
book
McElroy and Townsend - Chap. 8
*Cosminsky - "Medical
Pluralism on a Guatemalan Plantation"
Nov. 26
XI. Costs and Benefits of Development
McElroy and
Townsend - Chap.9
Dec. 3
XII Medical Anthropologists at Work
McElroy and Townsend- Chap. 10
Dec.
10 Conclusions and Review
Dec.
17 FINAL EXAM
There
will be a midterm exam and a final exam which will cover material since the
midterm. Exams will including readings, lectures, materials and films. Class
participation is expected and will be counted in your grade. Excessive absences
will be counted against your grade.
You will
also be responsible for keeping a Health Diary, upon which a writing assignment
will be based. This paper will be due Nov. 19. Details will be given in class.