Magic, Witchcraft and Medicine

Catalog description

The course introduces students to classical anthropological readings about magic and witchcraft. It examines cross cultural ethnographic descriptions of key-concepts, such as sympathetic magic, shamanism, evil eye, and vampires. The course also critically investigates continuities between magic and medicine. It focuses on recent ethnographies that explore the non-secular rationality embedded in practices surrounding amniocentesis, IVF and other forms of imagistic medicine, organ donation and transplantation, and controlling contagion. Satisfies Magis: Doing Social Science. P: Magis: Understanding Social Science; CR. So. stdg.