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Syllabus Medical Anthropology (ANT 230)

Posted onAuthorPeter J Brown

ANT 230 Syllabus Version 10 Spring 2022 03032022

MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Anthropology 230, Spring 2022

Tuesday and Thursday 2:30 – 3:45 PM

206 White Hall

For January – ZOOM Meeting ID: 954 8009 3206 Passcode: Medanthro

 

Instructor

 

Professor Peter J. Brown

Office: 215 Anthropology Bldg.
Virtual Office: https://zoom.us/j/8131942071

Email: antpjb [at] emory [dot] edu

 

Office Hours: Tuesdays 4:00–6:00pm, Wednesdays 10:30-11:30 am and by appointment

 

Teaching Assistants:

Jenny Vy       jenny [dot] thuy [dot] vy [at] emory [dot] edu

Amy Wang   amy [dot] shuran [dot] wang [at] emory [dot] edu

 

 

Course Description

 

This course is an introduction to the field of Medical Anthropology; it is a general survey.  The course provides an anthropological perspective on the cultural features of different medical systems, illness experience, mental health, and the enculturation of medical practitioners.  It also emphasizes the practical uses of this perspective in the improvement of health care.

 

The anthropological perspective on medicine, illness and healing emphasizes six things:

  1. Cross-cultural comparisons and the cultural construction of health and illness;
  2. The concept of adaptation in biocultural evolution in relation to morbidity and mortality;
  3. Understanding and appreciation of “exotic” ethnomedical systems and the central role of belief in the healing process;
  4. Critical cultural analysis of Biomedicine as a system and the culture of contemporary health-care providers (including complementary/alternative medicine).
  5. Understanding the patient’s perspectives in issues of stigma, disability and biopsychosocial interactions of the illness experience;
  6. Application of the concept of culture and its relation to practical problems in health delivery in a multicultural society as well as cross-cultural communication.

 

CANVAS and ZOOM SITES

 

https://canvas.emory.edu/courses/98868

“Medical Anthropology Virtual Classroom”

Zoom Meeting ID: 954 8009 3206

Passcode: Medanthro

 

https://zoom.us/j/95480093206?pwd=V2g2by8xNWJlNnFRaXZxVXZ4WmNsZz09

 

 

Learning Objectives

 

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

  1. Describe the basic theories, key concepts and methodologies of Medical Anthropology
  2. Provide medical anthropological examples within the four fields of Anthropology
  3. Identify key aspects of cultural beliefs in regard to theory of etiology, diagnosis, and treatment in the healing systems of least three different societies
  4. Describe the applicability of anthropological theories and methods for clinical care in a multicultural society

 

Required Texts

 

Brown, Peter J. and Svea Closser (2016) Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology. 3rd Edition.  Left Coast Press.

 

I am the author/editor of this book and have put a great deal of effort into the section headings, conceptual tools, article introductions, discussion questions, etc.  There is no other book like it on the market, and that’s why I use it.   

 

Fadiman, Anne.  The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. Farrar (reprint 2012)

 

Some of you might have read this book before, but we will examine it with a more critical lens. We will be discussing this book in conjunction with the dissertation of Jun Hu (MD, PhD) Under the Knife: Medical “Noncompliance” among Hmong Immigrants (Emory, 2000) and you will be reading a substantial portion of that work in order to complete writing assignment 1.

 

Another medical anthropology book of your own choosing.  This is the basis of your second writing assignment.

 

A list of possible monographs and ethnographies will be posted, but if you identify another title you can use it with permission.  Many of the articles in the reader are excerpts from books, so that might help you also.   I expect the books to either be written by an anthropologist or on material that is clearly anthropological of sociological in its approach to health, illness experience, or healing.   You cannot use a book that you have already read in a Human Health course.  You are expected to purchase this book and the assignment will include a photo of you reading the book.  The reason for this is that I want you to become a life-long reader, and the easiest way to do that is to learn to choose, buy and read something.   

 

*All other readings will be provided via Canvas

                                                                                                                                    

Grading Scale

Letter Grade Numerical Grade Range
A  93
A- 90-92.9
B+ 87-89.9
B 83-86.9
B- 80-82.9
C+ 77-79.9
C 73-76.9
C- 70-72.9
D 63-69.9
F 63

 

 

Notes on the Reading and Lecture Schedule

  1. The schedule is subject to revision. I view it as a budget, not a contract.  Any changes in the schedule will be announced on Canvas.  In the past, I have ocassionally gotten behind schedule, but there is an open discussion day that might allow some catch up. Test dates and assignment dateswill not be changed,
  2. PJB has some organizational challenges. Try to be patient.  It is helpful if students remind me students remind me of the time and topics that still haven’t been covered  (if he gets off-topic during a lecture).
  3. My expectation is that the reading needs to be done before every class; you should expect daily reading assignments to take no more than two hours per class session. You have work/reading to do every day; the course moves at a relentless pace – do not fall behind. If you are doing more than four hours of work per week in this class please let me know.
  4. Readings are listed in order of importance. I will not necessarily talk about each of that day’s readings in lecture.
  5. Numbered readings and ‘section headings’ correspond to chapters in Brown and Closser’s Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology (third edition).
  6. The “conceptual tools” sections of the book are particularly important. I use these for constructing examinations.
  7. Please read the article introductions and discussion questions – these might be used for exit tickets or prompts for cold calling and class discussions.
  8. The Fadiman book will be read during the first half of the semester. The “choose your own medical anthropology book” can be read at any time.
  9. Other readings are posted on the Canvas site.

 

Part I: Understanding Medical Anthropology

During the first part of the semester we will be covering a variety of topics and theoretical approaches in Medical Anthropology.  These include biological, archaeological/historical, and cultural approaches.  The idea is to provide you with the “big picture” of health, medical systems, disease ecology, biocultural evolution, and healing.

 

 

  • Section 1. Introducing Medical Anthropology
  • Class 1 – Tuesday, January 11, 2022
  • Necessary Preliminaries: Understanding Medical Anthropology
  •  
  • Topics
  • Introductions: Professor and TAs
  • Course structure and syllabus
  • Course policies and expectations
  • Textbook and Canvas structures
  • What is Anthropology?
  • Covid 19 adjustments – virtual meetings at least until February 1
  • To Do
  • Student Information Sheet
    • Due January 13 @ 2pm or ASAP before A/D/S deadline
      • ( no hard deadline.  S/U part of class participation
  •  Class 2 – Thursday, January 13
  • The Anthropological Approach to the Cultural Aspects of Medicine, Health and the Illness Experience
  • Due:
  • Introduction post (today of ASAP – no hard deadline)
  • Topics
  • What is Anthropology?
  • Medical Anthropology as Anthropology: Basic and Applied Research
  • What is it to be a human?
  • Ethnocentrism – Discussion of Nacirema article
  • Required Readings
  • Textbook p13 : “Medical Anthropology: An Introduction (p 13p)
  • Miner Horace, “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” (5 pages) Important – this may be an exit ticket
  • “What is Anthropology?” AAA website link on Canvas
  • “What is Medical Anthropology” SMA website link on Canvas
  • To Do
  • Complete Syllabus / Introductory Chapter Quiz on Canvas
    • Due via Canvas on on January 14th at 5pm
    • If you added into the course late, complete this quiz ASAP ( no hard deadline. S/U part of class participation
  •  
  • Class 3 – Tuesday, January 18
  • Key Concepts
  • Topics
  • A Dozen Key Concepts (we will define these generally):
    • Culture and Ethnocentrism
    • Medicine vs Health
    • Individual health vs population health
    • Medicalization
    • Disease vs Illness,
    • Cultural Beliefs affect Illness Beavior
    • Biomedicine and Ethnomedicine (CAM)
    • Illness experience
    • Stigma
    • Healing/Curing,
    • Social Determinants of Health,
    • Structural Violence and Health Inequalities
  • à Note that these are quite a few concepts, and many will be new to students who have not taken an Anthropology course before.  We will only briefly describe them in this class session, but by the end of the semester you should be able to define them and give an example.
  • Required Readings
  • Review Textbook p13 : “Medical Anthropology: An Introduction (p 13p)
  • Brown P, G Gregg and B Ballard. 1998. Culture, ethnicity and the practice of medicine. In Human Behavior: An Introduction for Medical Students, 109-136. (27 pages)
  •  
  • Section 2. Biocultural Approaches in Medical Anthropology
  • To Do
  • Discussion Board #1 opens– remember you need to post at least 2 substantial entries (ending with question) and two serious responses before 3/1. There are discussion boards for each section of the course. Discussion closes one week after the course section is finished.
  •  
  • Class 4 – Thursday, January 20
  • Evolution and the History of Epidemiological Transitions
  •  
  • Topics
  • Archaeology and Paleopathology – how to reconstruct health histories
  • Three epidemiological transitions
  • Neolithic Revolution
  • Emerging and Re-emerging pathogens
  •  
  •                Required Reading
  • Textbook p. 85 “Conceptual tools” (1 page)
  • Textbook p. 88 “Evolutionary, historical and political economic perspectives on health and disease” (10 pages)
  • Start reading Spirit Catches You.
    • Note: If you have already read this book in another context, it is important that you read it again. We will be discussing this book in conjunction with the dissertation of Jun Hu (MD, PhD) Under the Knife: medical “Noncompliance” among Hmong Immigrants (Emory, 2000).  The analysis will not be what you expect.
  •                Recommended Reading
  • Peter Brown, George Armelagos, Kenneth Maes. “Humans in a World of Microbes”.
  • Textbook p. 118 “ Social Inequalities and Emerging Infectious Disease” (8 pages)
  •  
  • Class 5 – Tuesday, January 25
  • Evolution, Disease, Skin Color and Cultural Adaptation
  •  
  • To Do
  • Be ready to discuss one of the introductory questions in your assigned reading
  • Homework 1 posted
  • Topics
  • Dual system of inheritance
  • Differences in biological and cultural evolutionary processes
  • Evolutionary Medicine
  • Both biological and cultural adaptation to disease
  • Race, skin color and the health impacts of racism
  • Required Reading
  • Textbook p. 25 “Conceptual tools” (1 page)
  • Textbook p. 27 “Stoneagers in the Fast Lane” (9 pages)
  • Textbook p. 39 “Fundamentals of Evolutionary Medicine” (6 pages)
  • *Note: all four readings below (4-7) are very interesting, and you should skim and read the introductions to the three that you were not assigned.  The midterm exam may include basic questions on all of these, but you will be able to get by with skimming and listening to the group presentations.  These are great case studies, and I recommend all.   Be prepared to summarize the main logic of your assigned reading in an exit ticket.
Last Name Assigned Reading
A-E Textbook p. 47 “Skin Deep” (5 pages)
F-L Textbook p. 52 “Disease and Dying While Black: how racism, not race, gets under the skin” (6 pages)
M-P Textbook p. 58 “Pica: A Biocultural Approach to Curious and Compelling Cravings” (14 pages)
Q-Z Textbook p. 73 “Cultural Adaptations to Malaria in Sardinia” (12 pages)
  • Thursday, January 27
  •             NO CLASS – COVID ADJUSTMENT
  •  
  • Class 6 – Tuesday, February 1
  • Disease in History: Growing Inequalities and Environmental Destruction
  •  
  • To Do:
  • Homework #1 Due at midnight 2/1
  • Topics
  • Aspects of disease: acute/chronic; epidemic/endemic; disease ecology
  • Role of Epidemic disease in History (McNeil)
  • Determinants of Health – explaining mortality decline and the influence of clinical medicine in late 19th and early 20th century (McKeown)
  • Social determinants of health – social class and poverty
  • Health Effects of the Anthropocene (disease ecology and global climate change)
  •                              
  • Required Reading
  • Textbook p. 99 “Determinants of Health: (6 pages)
  • review Textbook p. 88 “Evolutionary, historical and political economic perspectives on health and disease” (10 pages)
  • Textbook p. 105 “Medical Anthropology and the Adverse Health Effects of Climate Change” (11 pages)
  • Introductory Chapter from Angus Deacon. The Great Escape:Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality
  •  
  •  
  • Section 3. Structural Violence, Inequalities, and the Political Ecology of Health
  • To Do
  • Discussion Board #2 opens – remember you need to post at least 2 substantial entries (ending with question) and two serious responses before 3/1.  Discussion closes one week after the course section is finished.
  •  
  • Class 7 – Thursday, February 3
  • Health, Poverty, and Structural Violence
  •  
  • Topics
  • Three levels of disease causation – going upstream.
    • Microbiological
    • Behavioral
    • Political Economic
  • Life Boat Ethics and Child Survival in Brazil
  • Emerging Infectious Disease
  • Ebola Outbreak and the Glaring Weakness of Health Care Systems
  • Behavior makes sense when understood in context of scarce resources (including knowledge) and precarity
  •  
  • Required Reading
  • Textbook p. 116 “Conceptual Tools. Structural Violence” (2 pages)
  • Textbook p. 127 “Culture, Scarcity and Maternal Thinking: Maternal Detachment and Infant Survival in a Brazilian Shantytown” (8 pages)
  • Textbook p. 118 “Social Inequalities and Emerging Infectious Diseases” (9 pages)
  •  
  • Class 8 –   – Tuesday, February 8
  •  
  • Case Studies in Inequality, Structural Violence, and Syndemics
  •  
  • To Do
  • Keep up with reading
  • Topics
  • Social structure and structural violence
  • Social Suffering
  • Sexism as structural violence
  • Social Stratification and Social Class
  • Everyday racism
  • Myth of biological race and reality of social race and racism
  • Income inequality
  • Syndemic theory
  • Required Reading
  • Textbook p. 140 “’Oaxacans Like to Work Bent Over’: the Naturalization of Social Suffering among Berry Farm Workers” (14 pages)
  • Textbook p. 164 “Syndemic Suffering: Rethinking Social and Health Problems among Mexican Immigrant Women.” (12 pages)
  • (Review) Textbook p. 52 “Disease and Dying While Black: how racism, not race, gets under the skin” (5 pages)
  •  
  • Section 4. Cultural Approaches in Medical Anthropology
  • To Do
  • Discussion Board #3 open – remember you need to post at least 2 substantial entries (ending with question) and two serious responses before 3/1; more participation in discussion boards is better for your CP score; it is OK to go back and give short responses to previous boards.
  • Class 9   Thursday, February 10
  • What is a Medical System? What Does Belief Have to Do with Healing?
  •  
  •  
  • Topics
  • Ethnomedical systems; theory of causation; diagnosis; treatment
  • Personalistic and Naturalistic medical systems
  • The Role of Belief in Healing: 3 levels of belief
  • N/um Tchai among !Kung San of Botswana
  • What is “Healing?”
  • Cultural Constructions — of Illness categories and labels
  • Required Reading
  • Textbook p. 177 “Conceptual tools” (2 pages)
  • Textbook p. 180 “Disease Etiologies in Non-Western Medical Systems” (7 pages)
  • Textbook p. 188 “The Healing Lessons of Ethnomedicine” (8 pages)
  • Konner, M. “Transcendental Medication” (4 pages)
  •  
  • Class 10 –   Tuesday, February 15
  • Cultural Variations in Biomedicine
  •  
  •                To Do
  • Be prepared for discussion of your assigned reading in relation to discussion questions posted); Recommended – explore data on geographic variations in medical procedures in U.S. and/or the problem of overtreatment in American hospital practice
  • Topics
  • Culture, Health and Medicine
  • Culture creates disease and Illness in two ways
  • Biomedicine as culture and an ethnomedical system
  • How are healers created?
  • Biomedical Variation and “National Character” (Culture and Personality school) – comparing France, Germany, U.K. and the U.S.A.
  • Required Reading
  • Payer, Lynn “Borderline Cases” (6 pages),
    • Can substitute with Payer Medicine and Culture – Foreward and Chapter 1 (19 pages)
Last Name Assigned Reading
A-D Payer Medicine and Culture – France
F-L Payer Medicine and Culture – West Germany
M-N Payer Medicine and Culture – Great Britain
Q-Z Payer Medicine and Culture – United States
  •                Recommended Reading
  • “Geographic Variations in Health Care in OECD countries” (8 pages)
  • Ritual in the Operating Room
  • Recommended: Dartmouth Atlas of Healthcare Variation in US (medicare)
  • Recommended: Geographic variation in the appropriate use of cesarean delivery
  • Recommended: Listen to NPR interview with S Brownlee, author of book “Overtreated” (22 min)
  • Recommended: Cultural Assumptions in Biomedicine – the machine that goes “bing!” (Monty Python)
  •  
  •  
  • Class 11 – Thursday, February 17
  • It Takes a Healer and a Believer
  •  
  •  
  • To Do
  • Write a question for our guest Dr Bisan Sahli, author of “Beyond the Doctor’s White Coat” (under assignments tab)
  • Topics
  • The importance of symbols in the healer-patient relationship
  • Shamanism
  • How Societies Create Healers–“Becoming a Doctor or a Shaman” [story of Quesalid]
  • How do healers come to believe in themselves – training and faking it
  • Placebo, Nocebo, and the “Meaning Effect”
  • Science as symbolism
  • The importance of ritual and the suspension of disbelief
  •  
  • Required Reading
  • Textbook p. 204 “Beyond the Doctor’s White Coat: Science, Ritual, and Healing in American Biomedicine” (8 pages)
  • Textbook p. 197 “The Sorceror and His Magic” (5 pages)
    1. [Note: this is a difficult reading by a very famous anthropologist. Primarily read the stories]
  • Textbook p. 222 “The Nocebo Phenomenon: Concept, Evidence, and Implications for Public Health” (5 pages)
  • Textbook p. 213 “Doctors and Patients: The Role of Clinicians in the Placebo Effect” (8 pages)
  • Recommended Reading
  • Introduction and Chapter 1 from Suggestible You: The Curious Science of Your Brain’s Ability to Deceive, Transform, and Heal, Erik Vance
  • Class 12 –  Tuesday, February 22
  •  
  • Variations in Ethnomedical Systems: Shamanistic, Humoral, Pluralistic, Biomedical, and Hegemonic
  •  
  • To Do
  • Homework #2 due Wednesday February 23, midnight
  •  
  • Topics
  • Humoral systems and their logic
  • Chi and ancient Chinese medicine
  • Shamanism and Folk Healers
  • Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)
  • Hierarchy of resort – patients’ health care seeking
  • Patient’s exploratory models (EM)
  •  
  • Required Reading
  • Ann Fadiman book: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down (chapters 1-4)
  • Review Textbook p. 213 “Doctors and Patients: The Role of Clinicians in the Placebo Effect” (8 pages)
  • Review Textbook p. 180 “Disease Etiologies in Non-Western Medical Systems” (7 pages)
  •  
  •  
  • Class 13 –  Thursday, February 24
  • Stigma, Fear, Epidemics, and Public Policy
  •  
  •  
  • To Do
  • Think about your personal experience with the Covid pandemic; I recommend talking with friends about how things have changed and the cultural politics of vaccinations and masks.
  • Part 1 of discussion posts (4 total – 2 posts and 2 responses) deadline is 2/26 at Midnight
  • Topics
  • When is an epidemic?
  • What makes a disease/illness feared?
  • Can a syndemic be an emergency?
  • Stigma
  • What are the responsibilies of clinical medical practitioners in public policy?
  • Drug “epidemic,” mass incarceration, and fear
  • Lessons from Ebola
  • Required Reading
  • Textbook p. 377 “Stigma in the Time of Influenza: Social and Institutional Responses to Pandemic Emergencies” (4 pages)
  • Textbook p. 155 “Does America Really Want to Solve Its Drug Problem” (8 pages)
  • Textbook p. 400 “Expanding Bodies in a Shrinking World: Anthropological Perspectives on the Global ‘Obesity Epidemic’” (7 pages)
  •  
  • Recommended:
  • Check out Dr Konner’s letters to his students about the Covid pandemic (1st post in March 2022) https://www.melvinkonner.com/ . This is a fantastic historical record of a biocultural anthropologist’s observations and explanation of the evolving pandemic.
  • Review session time/place TBA
  • MIDTERM EXAM –  Tuesday, March 1
  •             MC, TF, FIB, Short Answer.  See TA’s if you require approved accommodations.
  •  
  • Part II: Applying Medical Anthropology
  • The second half of the semester is aimed at using the concepts and perspective of Medical Anthropology that we have already developed and exploring how these have practical relevance today – in a multicultural and unequal American society.  This is more of the applied side of Anthropology.
  • Section 5: Working with the Culture of Biomedicine: Culture in the Clinic
  • To Do
  • Discussion Board #4 opens– remember you need to post at least 2 substantial entries (ending with question) and two serious responses before 3/1; more participation in discussion boards is better for CP score; Discussion closes one week after the course section is finished.
  •  
  • Class 14 –  – Thursday, March 3, 2020
  •  
  • Does the “Cultural Competence” Movement Obscure the Real Causes of Health Inequalities?
  •  
  • To Do
  • Continue with Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
  • Paper #1 Guidelines posted
  • Topics
  • Cultural Competence and Multiculturalism
  • “Worlds Apart” teaching videos from Stanford Medical School; L.E.A.R.N.
  • Social Determinants of Health
  • Health Inequalities in Clinical Decision Making
  • Gender and the Culture of Clinical Interactions
  • Criticisms of Cultural Competence – Cultural Humility
  •  
  •                Required Readings _  Please note—even though this class session is right after the exam and before break, these readings are quite important
  • Galanti, G. “Basic Concepts” chap 1 from Caring for Patients from Different Cultures. (26 pages)
  • Tervalon and Murray-Garcia 1998 Cultural Humility Versus Cultural Competence: A Critical Distinction in Defining Physician Training Outcomes in Multicultural Education.  Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved. (10 pages)
  • Textbook p. 344 “Anthropology in the Clinic: The Problem of Cultural Competence and How to Fix It” (5 pages)
  • Recommended Readings
  • Textbook p. 350 Suzanne Huertin-Roberts. “Health Beliefs and Compliance with Prescribed Medication for Hypertension among Black Women, New Orleans” (2 pages)
  •  
  • Spring Break!
  •  
  • Note – you should be finishing “the spirit catches You…” over spring break because first paper is due March 17.
  • *The following recommended readings can be helpful in writing your paper
  • ·        Taylor J. 2003. The Story Catches You and You Fall Down: Tragedy and “Cultural Competence”  (Canvas)
  • ·        Jun Hu (2001) Increased Incidence of Perforated Appendixes in Hmong Children in California New England Journal of Medicine Vol. 344, No. 13:1023 (7 pages)
  • ·        Culhane-Pera “Culturally responsive care for Hmong patients. Collaboration is a key treatment component” (6 pages)
  • ·        Culhane-Pera excerpts from Healing by Heart – case stories + commentary – children with high fevers (6 pages)
  •  
  • Class 15  Tuesday March 15
  • Communication in the Multicultural Clinic
  • To Do
  • Work on paper #1
  • Topics
  • Communication/Communicating Pain
  • Acculturation and Language
  • Compliance/ Adherence / Patient-Centered Care
  • Required Readings
  • Galanti, G. “Communication and Time Orientation” chap 2 from Caring for Patients from Different Cultures. (24 pages)
  • Galanti, G. “Pain” chap 3 from Caring for Patients from Different Cultures. (10 pages)
  • Zborowski, M. (1952) “Cultural Components in Response to Pain” Social Issues 8(4):16-30 (16 pages) skim this old piece
  • Class 16 Thursday, March 17
  • Case Study – the Hmong
  •  
  • To Do
  • Paper #1 due tonight at midnight
  • Required Readings
  • ·        Anne Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down (finish)
  • Jun Hu. Under the Knife: Medical “Non-compliance” among Hmong Immigrants (available on-line through Woodruff Library)
  • *The following recommended readings can be helpful in writing your paper
  • ·        Taylor J. 2003. The Story Catches You and You Fall Down: Tragedy and “Cultural Competence”  (Canvas)
  • ·        Jun Hu (2001) Increased Incidence of Perforated Appendixes in Hmong Children in California New England Journal of Medicine Vol. 344, No. 13:1023 (7 pages)
  • ·        Culhane-Pera “Culturally responsive care for Hmong patients. Collaboration is a key treatment component” (6 pages)
  • ·        Culhane-Pera excerpts from Healing by Heart – case stories + commentary – children with high fevers (6 pages)
  • Recommended Readings
  • Textbook p. 353 “Competence and Its Discontents” (9 pages)
  • Section 6:  Illness Experience: Stigma, Disability, and Mental Health
  • Discussion Board #5 open – remember you need to post at least 1 substantial entry (ending with question) and two serious responses before 4/25; more participation in discussion boards is better for CP score; Discussion closes one week after the course section is finished.
  •  
  • Class 17 – Tuesday, March 22
  • Illness Experience and Social Stigma
  • To Do
  • Homework #3 posted – line up some older person to interview (call your grandmother)
  •  
  • Topics
  • Sick Role (and Role Theory)
  • Illness Narratives and the Illness Experience
  • Stigma and “courtesy stigma”
  • HIV/AIDS
  • Chronic disease and personal identity
  • Coping Strategies
  •  
  • Required Reading
  • Textbook p. 363 “Conceptual Tools” (1 page)
  • Textbook p. 364 “The Nature of Stigma and Medical Conditions” (7 pages)
  • Textbook p. 372 “Coping with Stigma: Lifelong Adaptation of Deaf People” (4 pages)
  • Textbook p. 377 “Stigma in the Time of Influenza: Social and Institutional Responses to Pandemic Emergencies” (4 pages)
  • Recommended Reading
  • Textbook p. 230 “Learning to Be a Leper: A Case Study in the Social Construction of Illness” (10 pages)
  • Class 18 – Thursday, March 24
  • Disability Studies and the Cultural Construction of “Normal”
  •  
  • To Do
  • Catch up on readings; research to find the book for your paper #2
  • Topics
  • Culture creates the definition of “normal”
  • Visible and invisible disability
  • Four models of disability
  • Chronic disease and personal identity
  • Coping Strategies in being “different”
  •  
  • Required Reading
  • Textbook p. 228 “Conceptual Tools” (1 page)
  • Textbook p. 249 “The Damaged Self” (11 pages)
  • Class 19 – Tuesday, March 29
  • Culture and Mental Health; Culture-Bound Syndromes
  •  
  • Topics
  • Labelling theory
  • Mental “Pathology” as a mechanism of social control
  • Culture-Bound Syndromes – controversies
  • Latah; Koro; Susto; Amok; Artic Hysteria; Ataques de Nervios
  •  
  • Required Reading
  • Textbook p. 298 “Conceptual Tools” (1 page)
  • Textbook p. 300 “Do Psychiatric Disorders Differ in Different Cultures?” (10 pages)
  • Peter J. Guarnaccia and Lloyd H. Rogler. Research on Culture Bound Syndromes: New Directions (6 pages)
  •  
  • Class 20 – Thursday, March 31
  • Culture and Mental Health; Autism, PTSD, Schizophrenia
  •  
  • Topics
  • Is Autism increasing? Diagnostic Labels
  • PTSD in veterans
  • Schizophrenia in Ireland, the U.S. and other countries
  • Illness as identity
  •  
  • Required Reading
  • Textbook p. 311 “ What in the World is Autism?  A Cross-Cultural Perspective.” (8 pages)
  • Textbook p. 320 “’I Came Back for This?’; Veterans Living with PTSD” (12 pages)
  • Lurhman, Tanya. Case 1 : “I’m Schizophrenic”: How Diagnosis Can Change Identity in the United States. From Our Most Troubling Madness (14 pages)
  • Recommended Reading
  • Lurhman, Tanya. “Introduction” from Our Most Troubling Madness
  • Class 21 – Tuesday, April 5
  • [Open Session – Discussion of Books for Second Paper]
  • To Do
  • Homework #3 due at midnight
  • You should have selected and purchased your book for the second paper by today
  • Guidelines for second paper posted
  •  
  • Topics
  • Open – class can choose topic
  • Taking stock of what we have learned so far.
  •  
  • Section 7: Gender, the Body, and Biomedical Technology
  • To Do:
  • Discussion Board #6 open – remember you need to post at least 2 substantial entries (ending with question) and two serious responses before 4/25; more participation in discussion boards is better for CP score; Discussion closes one week after the course section is finished.
  • Class 22 – Thursday, April 7
  • Women’s Health, Feminism, Male Longevity Disadvantage, New Reproductive Technologies
  •  
  • Topics
  • Sex vs Gender
  • How has the culture of Biomedicine been sexist?
  • Women’s Health essentializes reproduction
  • Illness as metaphor – Menstruation and Menopause
  • New reproductive technologies Infertility
  • Males have gender too – masculinity as a health risk
  • Why do men die earlier than women?
  • Genital Modification Surgeries
  •  
  • Required Reading
  • Textbook p. 274 “Religion and Reproductive Technologies” (3 pages)
  • Thomas Perls &Ruth Fretts. Why Women Live Longer than Men (Canvas)
  • Textbook p. 418 “Sociocultural Dynamics of Female Genital Cutting” (10 pages)
  •  Textbook p. 262 “Medical Metaphors of Women’s Bodies:  Menstruation and Menopause” (12 pages)
  • Recommended Reading
  • Alan Klein.  Life’s Too Short to Die Small: Steroid use among male bodybuilders
  • Class 23 – Tuesday, April 12
  • Anthropology of the Body: Fat and Thin
  • To Do
  • Catch up
  • Topics
  • Understanding Eating Disorders – Culture Bound Syndromes?
  • Biocultural Approaches to Obesity
  • The Case Against Sugar
  • The Decline of Physical Activity and the Rise of CVD – the role of culture?
  •                Required Reading
  • Textbook p. 400 “Expanding Bodies in a Shrinking World: Anthropological Perspectives on the Global ‘Obesity Epidemic’” (7 pages)
  • Textbook p. 394 ”De-Medicalizing Anorexia: A New Cultural Brokering” (6 pages)
  •              Recommended Reading
  • Sugar Wars. Atlantic Magazine review of G Taubes book The Case Against Sugar. (8 pages)
  • Brown, Peter “Cultural Perspectives on the Etiology and Treatment of Obesity” (16 pages)
  •  
  • Class 24 – Thursday, April 14
  • Culture of Biomedical Technological Interventions: Organ Transplants
  • To Do
  • Online quiz posted (Due 4/20) Open book, material since midterm only, MC, TF, short answer
  • Topics
  • Medicalization
  • Death and Brain Death
  • Intensive Care Unit – living cadavers
  • Organ Transplants and Commodification
  • International/Illegal market for organs
  • Biomedical technology at the beginning and end of life
  • What is a good death?
  • Required Reading
  • Textbook p. 286 “Inventing a New Death and Making It Believable” (12 pages)
  • Textbook p. 277 “Spare Parts for Sale: Violence, Exploitation and Suffering” (9 pages)
  • Recommended: NPR Podcast. The International Trade in Organs. Nancy Scheper-Hughes (30 min)
  •  
  • Class 25 – Tuesday, April 19
  • Anthropology In and Of Global Health
  • To Do
  • Online Quiz due Wednesday 4/20 at midnight
  •  
  • Topics
  • WHO definition of Health
  • Global Health vs International Health
  • Required Reading
  • What is Global Health? P. Brown and S. Closser (2018) pp2-12 in Foundations of Global Health: An Interdisciplinary Reader
  •  
  • Class 26 – Thursday, April 21
  • Conclusions: Medical Anthropology and Your LIfe
  •  
  • To Do
  • Think about what you’ve learned this semester
  • Topics
  • PJB last lecture
  • Lessons learned?
  • Your roles as a (lay) health care provider
  • Your future illness experiences
  • Is Biomedicine a secular religion? (return to the Nacirema!)
  • Required Reading
  • Review Textbook p. 13-23 “Medical Anthropology: An Introduction” (10 pages)
  • Paper #2 Due 4/27 at midnight
  •  
  • Review session time/place TBA
  •  
  • FINAL EXAM – May 3, 2022 @ 11:30 AM – 1:30PM
  • Twice as long as midterm. MC, TF, FIB, short answer.
  • Grades posted May 7 at 6pm
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