21A.215 Medical Anthropology, Fall 2002

Abstract

Examination of how medicine is practiced cross-culturally, with particular emphasis on Western biomedicine. Analysis of medical practice as a cultural system, focusing on the human, as opposed to the biological, side of things. Also, examines how we and people in other cultures think of disease, health, body, and mind. From the course home page: Course Description This course looks at medicine from a cross-cultural perspective, focusing on the human, as opposed to biological, side of things. Students learn how to analyze various kinds of medical practice as cultural systems. Particular emphasis is placed on Western (bio-medicine); students examine how biomedicine constructs disease, health, body, and mind, and how it articulates with other institutions, national and international.