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Noel Chrisman, Ph.D., MPH
Office: T 518D; Phone 685-0804
Office Hour: W 1:30 and by appointment
noelj@u.washington.edu
W 9:30-12:20, T 474A
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
ANTHROPOLOGY 562
NURSING 562
CLINICALLY APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY
Spring, 2001
The topic for this seminar is the clinical application of concepts and methods of anthropology.
We will use Sargent and Johnson, Medical Anthropology: Contemporary Theory and Method,
Revised Edition, and Helman, Culture, Health and Illness, 4th Edition as texts. A former text
(Chrisman and Maretzki, Clinically Applied Anthropology) is useful and available in the library
and sometimes for sale. Reading materials are available through the library.
Seminar format will include the examination of selected publications in medical anthropology to
understand how anthropologists investigate and analyze health-related behaviors. This
information will then be related to health care activities to see whether anthropological insight
offers solutions or new approaches. Specific topics will range widely depending on student
interests and availability of articles. Topics will include cultural variations in illness beliefs and
illness behavior, types of healing practices, and international health.
Required paper: about 20 pages, typed and double spaced, due June 1. (75% of grade)
Topic: Part I: Analysis of a current issue in medical anthropology, attempting to demonstrate
multiple perspectives of the issue. You may also choose a culture area or specific cultural group
and demonstrate the various ways anthropologists have written about them. Part II: Show the
ways in which this information can be used in a health science setting: clinical, planning, or
teaching.
It is useful to choose an anthropological topic that is similar to your clinical interest; but do not
let the clinical interest take precedence. Occasionally, there is insufficient anthropological
literature available and you will be unable to write about your clinical interest in the way you
planned. However, creative solutions to merging the clinical and anthropological topic exist.
Plan to meet with me.
This paper is graded (1) on how well you handle the anthropological topic. I expect that you will
use a variety of books and periodicals that give you a depth of understanding of the issue. (This
actually means that I expect you will have and use a substantial bibliography.) Moreover, you
should show how this topic has been debated among anthropologists by demonstrating multiple
views that anthropologists have taken of the matter. (2) It is also graded on how well you design
the clinical use of anthropological information. To some extent, this depends on your knowledge
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and creativity. However, it also depends on how you draw together the anthropological
knowledge from the first part. Thus, you should plan on a summary and conclusion to the first
part of your paper that draws together how anthropologists have been writing about the topic you
have chosen.
My experience is that the clinicians in the class need help with the language and perspectives of
anthropology, and the social scientists need help with understanding clinical language and
perspectives. Each of you should take responsibility for helping others with your own expertise
and for asking of others help with their expertise. We should see the seminar time as a chance to
practice what will go in the paper; i.e., understanding the anthropology and then applying it.
Other paper assignments: (These are simply approximations toward the final paper.)
1. 4-5 pages, due April 18: Identify a theoretical problem in anthropology that interests you.
Based on at least two resources, discuss how anthropologists view the problem by elaborating the
major concepts. (10% of grade)
2. 4-8 pages, due May 16: More detailed discussion of the topic in paper #1. Use at least six
resources and show the kinds of evidence that anthropological researchers have used to support
their concepts and their arguments around the topic. Suggest ways the information might be used
in the health sciences. (15% of grade)
Abstract for the class: As part of your paper assignment, please make a (no longer than) one
page abstract of your paper with 4-5 of the key references for your classmates. This is due on
May 30th. (See the assignment for May 30th)
Reading and discussion: We will have a small enough class that we can expect that everyone
will have an opportunity to talk and I expect class participation. We are attempting to figure out
what the reading is talking about and how our emerging understandings may be usable in health
science settings. Thus, even points that we make that are “wrong” will be helpful in achieving
the knowledge we are after. It will be important also for clinicians to assist non-clinicians to
understand that nature of practice. And the reverse is true; the clinicians are going to need some
help understanding the anthropology. Reading is available in the two text books and as
photocopies.
I have tried to hold the amount of reading to a minimum so that each week you have 3-6
readings, some from the textbook, others from chapters and articles. These articles have been
photocopied and are available through electronic reserve.
(Libraries[ http://www.lib.washington.edu/], > Course Reserves
[http://www.lib.washington.edu/services/course/], > Search by Professor
[http://catalog.lib.washington.edu/search/p], write Chrisman, Noel and push search.) I will give
you the username and password in class. The optional reading is not as available, but I will lend
you a copy when you ask me.
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TOPIC OUTLINE AND RELATED READING
Mar 28 Introduction I will not be in class. You will have a videotape of the introduction.
Mechanics of the class
Overview of anthropology and the position of medical anthropology
April 4
Medical Anthropology:
Reading:
Helman, Introduction (text)
Sargent & Johnson, Introduction; (text)
Brown et al., Disease, “Ecology, and Human Behavior;” (text)
Lock and Scheper-Hughes, “Critical-Interpretive Approach.” (text)
April 11
Issues in Clinically Applied Anthropology
Reading:
Anderson et al., "Mexican American Resistance to Heart Care." (article)
Chrisman and Johnson, "Clinically Applied Anthropology." (text)
Baer, "How Critical can Clinical Anthropology Be?" (article)
April 18
Folk and Lay Health Care Practices
Reading:
Helman, Chapter 4
Chrisman and Kleinman, "Popular Health Care, Social Networks, and Cultural
Meanings" (Mechanic, Ed.) (article)
Nichter, "Idioms of Distress" (Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry) (article)
Rubel & Hass, “Ethnomedicine;” (text)
Optional: Blumhagen, "The Meaning of Hypertension" (article)
April 25
Culture Bound Syndromes
Reading:
Etkin, “Ethnopharmacology” (text)
Hughes, "Ethnopsychiatry" (text)
Helman, Chapters 9, 10
Johnson, "Premenstrual Syndrome as a Western Culture-Specific Disorder;"
(article)
Optional: Kenny, "Latah: The Symbolism of a Putative Mental
Disorder;"(Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry) (article)
Ritenbaugh, "Obesity" (Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry) (article)
Martin, "Premenstrual Syndrome, Work Discipline, and Anger" (article)
May 2
Chronic Illness/Illness Narratives
Reading:
Alexander, "Illness Maintenance ..." (article)
Williams, "Genesis of Chronic Illness" (article)
Hunt, “Moral Reasoning and the Meaning of Cancer”
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May 9 Folk Healers, Western Practitioners, and Dual Use
Reading:
Rhodes, "Studying Biomedicine as a Cultural System" (text)
Helman, Chapters 5, 9
Gaines, "From DSM-I to III-R" (Social Science and Medicine) (article)
Lazarus, "Theoretical Considerations for the Study of the Doctor-Patient
Relationship" (Medical Anthropology Quarterly) (article)
Optional: Chrisman, "Anthropology in Nursing" (in Chrisman and Maretzki),
Csordas, "Rhetoric of Transformation" (Cult, Med, and Psych),
Last, "Professionalization of Indigenous Healers" (text)
McGuire, "Words of Power" (Cult, Med, and Psych).
Press, "Urban Illness" (article)
May 16
Stress: The New Witchcraft?
Reading:
Dressler, "Culture, Stress, and Disease" (text)
Helman, Chapter 11
Pollack, "Nature of Modern Stress" (Social Science and Medicine) (article)
Optional: Young, "The Discourse on Stress and the Reproduction of
Conventional Knowledge" (Social Science and Medicine) (article)
May 23
Public and International Health
Reading:
Lane and Rubenstein, "International Health and Development" (text)
Helman, Chapter 13, Medical Anthropology and Global Health
Kendall, et al., "Anthropology, Communications, and Health: The Mass Media
and Health Practices Program in Honduras.” (article)
Chrisman et al., “Community partnership research with the Yakama Indian
Nation.” (article)
May 30
Discussion of Student Papers
You should all have the benefit of some of the advances in knowledge made by class
members. Thus, bring a (no more than) one page abstract of your paper in which you
identify the issue you looked at and why, lay out what anthropologists say about the issue,
and how you think that anthropological knowledge can be used by clinicians. Include a
brief set of citations to the few most important references you have.
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Bibliography, ANTH 562/NURS 562
Alexander, Linda
1982
Illness Maintenance and the New American Sick Role. In Clinically Applied
Anthropology. N. Chrisman and T. Maretzki, ed. Pp. 351-369. Dordrecht,
Holland: Reidel.
Anderson, Barbara G., J. Rafael Toledo, and Nancy Hazam
1982
An Approach to the Resolution of Mexican-American Resistance to Diagnostic
and Remedial Pediatric Heart Care. In Clinically Applied Anthropology. N.
Chrisman and T. Maretzki, ed. Pp. 325-351. Dordrecht, Holland: Reidel.
Baer, Hans A., Merrill Singer, and John H. Johnsen
1986
Toward a Critical Medical Anthropology. Social Science and Medicine 23
(2):95-98.
Baer, Hans
1993
How Critical Can Clinical Anthropology Be? Medical Anthropology 15
(3):299-317.
Blumhagen, Dan
1982
The Meaning of Hypertension. In Clinically Applied Anthropology. N.
Chrisman and T. Maretzki, ed. Pp. 297-325. Dordrecht, Holland: Reidel.
Brown, Peter J., Marcia C. Inhorn, and Daniel J. Smith
1996 Disease, ecology and human behavior. In Medical Anthropology: Contemporary
Theory and Method, Revised Ed.. C. Sargent and T. Johnson, eds. Pp. 183-219.
New York: Praeger.
Browner, Carole H., and Carolyn F. Sargent
1990
Anthropology and Studies of Human Reproduction. In Medical Anthropology:
Contemporary Theory and Method. T. Johnson and C. Sargent, ed. Pp. 215-230.
New York: Praeger.
Chrisman, Noel J.
1982
Anthropology in Nursing: An Exploration of Adaptation. In Clinically Applied
Anthropology. N. J. Chrisman and T. W. Maretzki, ed. Pp. 117-140. Dordrecht,
Holland: Reidel Publishing Co.
Chrisman, Noel J., and Thomas M. Johnson
1996
Clinically Applied Anthropology. In Medical Anthropology: Contemporary
Theory and Method, Revised Ed.. C. Sargent and T. Johnson, eds. Pp. 88-113.
New York: Praeger.
Chrisman, Noel J., and Arthur Kleinman
1983
Popular Health Care, Social Networks, and Cultural Meanings: The Orientation
of Medical Anthropology. In Handbook of Health , Health Care, and the Health
Professions. D. Mechanic, ed. Pp. 569-589. New York: The Free Press.
Chrisman, Noel J., and Thomas W. Maretzki
1982
Anthropology in Health Science Settings. In Clinically Applied Anthropology.
N. Chrisman and T. Maretzki, ed. Pp. 1-35. Dordrecht, Holland: Reidel
Publishing.
Chrisman, Noel J., C.June Strickland, KoLynn Powell, Marian Dick Squeochs, and
Martha Yallup
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1999
Community Partnership Research with the Yakama Indian Nation. Human
Organization 58(2):134-141.
Csordas, Thomas
1983
The Rhetoric of Transformation in Ritual Healing. Culture, Medicine and
Psychiatry 7 (4):333-375.
Csordas, Thomas J., and Arthur Kleinman
1996 The Therapeutic Process. In Medical Anthropology: Contemporary Theory and
Method, Revised Ed.. C. Sargent and T. Johnson, eds. Pp. 3-21. New York:
Praeger.
Dressler, William W.
1996
Culture, Stress, and Disease. In Medical Anthropology: Contemporary Theory
and Method, Revised Ed.. C. Sargent and T. Johnson, eds. Pp. 252-272. New
York: Praeger.
Estroff, Sue
1982
Long Term Psychiatric Clients in an American Community: Some
Sociocultural Factors in Chronic Mental Illness. In Clinically Applied
Anthropology. N. Chrisman and T. Maretzki, ed. Pp. 369-395. Dordrecht,
Holland: Reidel.
Etkin, Nina L.
1996
Ethnopharmacology: The conjunction of medical anthropology and the biology
of therapeutic action. In Medical Anthropology: Contemporary Theory and
Method, Revised Ed.. C. Sargent and T. Johnson, eds. Pp. 151-165. New York:
Praeger.
Gaines, Atwood D.
1992
From DSM-I to III-R; Voices of Self, Mastery and the Other: A Cultural
Constructivist Reading of U.S. Psychiatric Classification. Social Science and
Medicine 35 (1):3-24.
Helman, Cecil
1994
Culture, Health and Illness. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Third Edition,
1994.
Hughes, Charles C.
1996
Ethnopsychiatry. In Medical Anthropology: Contemporary Theory and Method,
Revised Ed.. C. Sargent and T. Johnson, eds. Pp. 131-151. New York: Praeger.
Hunt, Linda M., Carole H. Browner, and Brigitte Jordan
1990
Hypoglycemia: Portrait of an Illness Construct in Everyday Use. Medical
Anthropology Quarterly 4 (2):191-210.
Hunt, Linda M.
1998
Moral Reasoning and the Meaning of Cancer:Causal Explanations of
Oncologists and Patients in Southern Mexico. Medical Anthropology Quarterly
12(3):298-319.
Johnson, Thomas M.
1987
Premenstrual Syndrome as a Western Culture-specific Disorder. Culture,
Medicine and Psychiatry 11 (3):337-357.
Kendall, Carl, Dennis Foote, and Reynoldo Martorell
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1983
Anthropology, Communications, and Health: The Mass Media and Health
Practices Program in Honduras. Human Organization 42 (4):353-361.
Kenny, Michael
1978
Latah: The Symbolism of a Putative Mental Disorder. Culture, Medicine and
Psychiatry 2 (3):209-233.
Lane, Sandra D. and Robert A. Rubenstein
1996
International Health and Development. In Medical Anthropology:
Contemporary Theory and Method, Revised Ed.. C. Sargent and T. Johnson, eds.
Pp. 396-425. New York: Praeger.
Last, Murray
1996
Professionalization of Indigenous Healers. In Medical Anthropology:
Contemporary Theory and Method, Revised Ed.. C. Sargent and T. Johnson, eds.
Pp. 374-396. New York: Praeger.
Lazarus, Ellen S.
1988
Theoretical Considerations for the Study of the Doctor-patient Relationship:
Implications of a Perinatal Study. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 2 (1):34-59.
Leininger, Madeleine
1973
Witchcraft Practices and Psychocultural Therapy with Urban U.S. Families.
Human Organization 32 (1):73-85.
1976
Two Strange Health Tribes: The Gnisrun and Enicedem in the United States.
Human Organization 35 (3):253-263.
Lock, Margaret and Nancy Scheper-Hughes
1996
A critical-interpretive approach in medical anthropology: Rituals and routines
of discipline and dissent. In Medical Anthropology: Contemporary Theory and
Method, Revised Ed.. C. Sargent and T. Johnson, eds. Pp. 41-71. New York:
Praeger.
Martin, Emily
1987
Premenstrual Syndrome, Work Discipline, and Anger (Chapter 7). In The
Woman in the Body: A Cultural Analysis of Reproduction. Boston: Beacon Press.
McGuire, Meredith B.
1983
Words of Power: Personal Empowerment and Healing. Culture, Medicine and
Psychiatry 7 (3):221-240.
Morsy, Soheir
1996
Political Economy in Medical Anthropology. In Medical Anthropology:
Contemporary Theory and Method, Revised Ed.. C. Sargent and T. Johnson, eds.
Pp. 21-41. New York: Praeger.
Nichter, Mark
1981
Idioms of Distress. Alternatives in the Expression of Psychosocial Distress: A
Case Study from South India. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 5 (4):379-409.
Pollock, Kristian
1988
On the Nature of Social Stress: Production of a Modern Mythology. Social
Science and Medicine 26 (3):381-392.
Press, Irwin
1969
Urban Illness: Physicians, Curers and Dual Use in Bogota. Journal of Health
and Social Behavior 10:209-218.
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Rhodes, Lorna Amarasingham
1996
Studying Biomedicine as a Cultural System. In Medical Anthropology:
Contemporary Theory and Method, Revised Ed.. C. Sargent and T. Johnson, eds.
Pp. 165-183. New York: Praeger.
Ritenbaugh, Cheryl
1982
Obesity as a Culture-bound Syndrome. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 6
(4):347-363.
Rubel, Arthur J., and Michael R. Hass
1996
Ethnomedicine. In Medical Anthropology: Contemporary Theory and Method,
Revised Ed.. C. Sargent and T. Johnson, eds. Pp. 113-131. New York: Praeger.
Rubel, Arthur J., Carl W. O'Nell, and Rolando Collado-Ardon
1984
Chapter 3, Description of Susto. In Susto: A Folk Illness. Pp. 30-49. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
Sargent, Carolyn F. and Johnson, Thomas M., eds.
1996
Medical Anthropology: Contemporary Theory and Method, Revised Edition.
New York: Praeger.
Williams, Gareth
1984
The Genesis of Chronic Illness: Narrative Reconstruction. Sociology of Health
and Illness 6 (2):175-199.
Williams, Gareth
1986
Lay Beliefs About the Causes of Rheumatoid Arthritis: Their Implications for
Rehabilitation. International Rehabilitation Medicine 8:65-68.
Williams, Gareth, and Philip H. N. Wood
1986
Common-sense Beliefs About Illness: A Mediating Role for the Doctor. The
Lancet, December 20/27, 1435-1437.
Young, Alan
1980
The Discourse on Stress and the Reproduction of Conventional Knowledge.
Social Science and Medicine 14B:133-146.