Medicine in China

Catalog description

How did people in ancient and modern China understand health and treat illness? Historically and now, has “Chinese medicine” been an insular or open system? What can health perceptions and healing practices tell us about historical changes in China and its changing relationship with the world? Drawing on insights from the history of medicine and medical anthropology, this course explores health and healing in China through five chronologically organized units and one diachronically comparative unit. We will consider the cosmological, philosophical, and sociological factors that shape different visions of health. We will examine how local and global political processes affect healing practices and their perceived legitimacy and investigate what illness and remedy-seeking experiences reveal about the wider contexts in which medical activities take place. Prerequisite: GPS or sophomore standing (or not open to first semester students). Fulfillment: Fulfillment: Core IPC; GCS Major/Minor Elective Chinese History, Society, and Culture; Social Science Focus Anthropology or Global Public Health 200 level course.