- Culture, Illness, and Healing

Catalog description

An exploration of the human experience of illness and healing in a cross-cultural perspective.  Using case studies to compare the United States with diverse world regions, students examine how patterns of human suffering emerge from interrelated biological, social, and cultural factors. Special attention is given to anthropological perspectives of health disparities and efforts to foster health equity and justice among poor and powerless social groups. Students learn cultural concepts to understand global health problems and to compare healing practices used by family caregivers, traditional healers, community health workers, and biomedical specialists.  Topics include reproductive health, infectious disease, chronic illness, environmental health, mental illness, and aging. Students complete applied ethnographic projects to understand how social and cultural diversity affect access to complementary and alternative medicine in a contemporary US context.