MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY ANT 4325
SYLLABUS AND PROSPECTUS
Garrett_Cook@baylor.edu Spring 2006 Marrs Mclean Science 318 254- 710-4433
Office hours T,W and Th 11-2 or by appointment
Introduction to Medical Anthropology
Medical anthropology is a bio-cultural field that includes several emerging
specializations within anthropology. Physical anthropologists, epidemiologists and
archaeologists whose main goal is tracking the evolution of diseases are doing medical
anthropology to the extent that they include culture as an adaptive system as the
context within which the human population interacts with pathogens, and establishes
health-related lifestyle choices. Cultural anthropologists who are researching how
diseases are understood and treated cross culturally are doing medical anthropology.
Nutritionists who are researching how culturally specific diets impact health are doing
medical anthropology. Cultural anthropologists who are investigating how other
cultures define health and illness and how they organize therapies or train specialists to
deal with these culturally defined illnesses are doing medical anthropology.
Cultural anthropologists also attempt to understand how culture, as opposed to
a hypothetically culture-free "Science", affects western medicine (eg. critiques of the
biomedical model, investigation of the ethnosemantics of how we envision sickness and
health in our own culture, ethnographies of health related institutions in the United
States). Often these approaches result in what is called "critical medical anthropology,"
sharing a goal of identifying ways in which the ideology and cultural biases and the
related institutionalized practices of western biomedicine fail to promote health
effectively or as effectively as they might if they were reformed, or use science and
medicine as cover for pursuing implicit culturally shaped goals other than those of
scientific research or health promotion.
Finally, some applied anthropologists work collaboratively with health
specialists from western and non-western cultures to try to design medical service
delivery systems and health promoting practices that can work effectively in bi-cultural
or multi-cultural settings.
We will cover all of these approaches, but to allow for the expertise and
limitations of the course instructor will focus more on cultural and applied medical
anthropology than on the biocultural and epidemiological approaches.
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COURSE OUTLINE
Anthropology, medical anthropology, culture and medical systems
Read Joralemon, Exploring Medical Anthropology
Biocultural medicine: cultural epidemiology and bioarchaeology
Read as assigned in Brown's text
Illness and therapy in cross cultural context
Read as assigned in Brown's text
Designing and implementing effective intercultural medicine
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read as assigned in Brown 's text and document case studies through
independent reseach.
Studying and trouble-shooting the cultures of biomedicine
Read as assigned in Brown's text, and Read Katz's The Scalpel's Edge
WORK AND GRADING
1
Describe and explicate (interpret, explain and show how it works) the illness and
therapy system of a non-western culture- 15%
Either describe a medical system, or develop a case study that investigates a specific
syndrome or complex and explains it in its non-western cultural context. This takes the
form of a 3-4 page essay based on your reading and analysis of a cited ethnographic
description of a culture. If time allows includes a presentation of findings to class. Due
as assigned in unit 3.
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Research Project 40% (10% for research proposal [due at start of unit 3] and
30% for research and report of findings (due at end of unit 4). This may be based on
either traditional research with published sources or field observations and interviews.
Ethnographic fieldwork projects must be approved by the course instructor prior to
beginning research. Culminates in a 10 page paper with full citation of sources, and if
time allows, a presentation of findings to class.
A.
Describe and explicate some delimited aspect of the culture of
institutionalized biomedicine, or of alternative medicine in the U.S. This can be
done via written sources, via interviews and participant observation, or via a
combination of both.
or
B.
Do comparative research on how a specific medical syndrome or complex
is expressed and handled in two or more cultures. Be clear about any
methodological problems in establishing the basis for the comparison (eg. How
would you make the argument that depression and soul-loss are the same
complex?) and explicate how divergences in etiologies and treatments are
related to the larger cultures.
3
Complete the unit readings and demonstrate competence in unit exams or
writing assignments, and final exam- 40%
4
The final 0-5% is earned through class participation: i.e. effective leading of
discussions of readings, and offering positive contributions to class discussions and
activities.
ATTENDANCE POLICY
There will be a 2 point attendance bonus added to your grade at the end of the term for
missing no classes, and 1 point for missing only one class.
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IN ACCORDANCE WITH BAYLOR UNIVERSITY POLICY : University policy requires that to
earn credit in a course the student must be officially enrolled by the end of the second full week of
the semester and attend at least 75% of all class meetings. Faculty members may establish
additional attendance requirements as outlined in course syllabi. Excessive lateness will be dealt
with by the individual instructor. Any student who is not present for at least 75% of the scheduled
class sessions for any course will automatically receive a grade of "F" in the course. Any Universityrelated activity necessitating an absence from class shall count as an absence when determining
whether a student has attended the required 75% of class meetings.
There are 15 class meetings in the semester which means that anyone who misses four
class meetings or more, even for excused absences, cannot pass the course. Excessive
lateness is penalized by adjustments to the 5 point participation grade at the instructor's
complete discretion.
REQUIRED TEXTS
-Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology, Peter J. Brown,
Mayfield 1998
-The Scalpel's Edge, Pearl Katz, Allyn and Bacon 1999
-Exploring Medical Anthropology, Donald Joralemon, Allyn and Bacon
2006 (second edition)
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