Medical Anthropology

Catalog description

This course provides a survey of the field of medical anthropology, which examines the intersections of culture, health, and illness. Through cross-cultural comparison, students will explore how diverse cultural beliefs, practices, and social structures shape health, illness, and medical practices. The course also examines disparities in global health in socioeconomic and political context. Medical anthropology employs a holistic approach that considers health at the intersection of biology and culture, shaped by both physical and social environments. Medical anthropology draws on the subfields of cultural anthropology and biological anthropology to understand the impact of culture on human physiology and well-being, with additional perspectives from linguistics and archaeology. This is an upper-division course for students who have been accepted into a HTL Bachelor's Degree program.