Spring 2009
Tuesday, Thursday, 12:30-1:45
The course syllabus is a general plan for the course, modifications may be necessary, and will be announced to the class by the instructor
Instructor : Dr. Susan Tanner, 266 Baldwin Hall, Jackson Street, Office Phone: 542-3085
E-mail: stanner1@uga.edu
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Office Hours: Wednesday 2:30 – 4:00 or by appointment
Teaching Assistant : Lisa Chaudhari 205A Baldwin Hall, Lab Phone: 542-1430
E-mail: shanti@uga.edu
Office Hours: Thursday 2:00-3:00 or by appointment
Course Description and Scope
What is health? How is health studied in a cross-cultural, global perspective? How does culture shape health and disease patterns? How do medical systems vary and how do people make choices relating to their health care? How is health best studied? This course provides an introduction to the field of medical anthropology from an ecological, biocultural, and economic perspective. Drawing on case studies and two ethnographic texts, we will examine how anthropology and the social sciences have addressed issues of health in a global context. We will begin the semester with an introduction to the study of health in anthropology. After discussing the basic theoretical frameworks, we will consider problems of nutrition, reproduction and infectious disease. In the final portion of the course, we will focus on the health consequences of culture change and applied medical anthropology.
Throughout the course, the student will be expected to develop:
A broad factual understanding of how culture and society shape health.
A clear understanding of the theoretical base of medical anthropology.
An understanding of the role and applicability of anthropology in global health.
Communication and writing skills consistent with their academic and/or professional goals.
Assessment : This is an upper division course. I expect that students will take a high degree of responsibility for their learning including regular class attendance, active participation in classroom discussions, careful attention to reading material, timely completion of course related activities and assignments, and professional interactions with peers in the course.
Your grade will reflect your performance on:
1) Class attendance and participation
2) Two in class exams
3) Annotated bibliography and summary
4) Writing assignments
10%
40%
30%
20%
100%
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Class attendance and participation (10% total): This is an upper level course and you are expected to attend and actively participate in class. Participation requires that you read all assigned readings and come to class with your thoughts and questions on the readings. In order to facilitate this, we will have short in class writing assignments or small discussion sessions.
WebCT: You are responsible for checking WebCT on a regular basis. We will post announcements and additional information. You are encouraged to post responses to the announcements or relevant course themes. Responses will be counted as class participation.
Two in-class exams (20% each).
We will have two in-class exams that are designed to test your comprehension of the topics and readings for the course. The first will occur on Feb 24 and the second during exam week.
Research presentation (30%): You will prepare a class presentation of a research topic in the last weeks of the semester. Instructions will be provided on WebCT.
Writing assignments (20%): You will be expected to complete additional assignments throughout the semester on topics related to course material. Assignments will be assigned two weeks before the project is due. More information will be provided.
Graduate Students: In addition, graduate students will be expected to prepare a research paper on a topic of their choosing and present their research to the class throughout the semester.
Course Materials:
Required materials
Wiley, A. 2009. Medical Anthropology: A biocultural approach. Oxford University Press, NY.
Detwyler, Katherine A. 1994. Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa. Waveland Press.
Farmer, Paul. 2001. Infections and Inequalities. University of California Press.
Coursepack will be available at Bel-Jean (163 E Broad Street, 706.548.3648).
Recommended readings. In addition to the required readings above, graduate students and interested undergraduates may also benefit from:
Joralemon, D. 2006. Exploring medical anthropology, second edition. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Trostle, JA. 2005. Epidemiology and culture. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Sargent, CF and TM Johnson. Editors. 1996. Handbook of medical anthropology: contemporary theory and method, Revised edition. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.
Recommended journals: Social Science and Medicine, Medical Anthropology Quarterly.
Society for Medical Anthropology: http://www.medanthro.net/definition.html
Anthropology 4540/6540, S09

Course Outline: This schedule is subject to change with notification. All modifications will be posted on
Web CT. It is your responsibility to check Web CT weekly for updates.
Week of: Topics Assignments and Events
Jan 8
Jan 12
Jan 19
Jan 26
Feb 2
Feb 9
Feb 16
Introduction
Defining health, illness, and disease
Health: Biology and culture
Health: Culture and society
Healing traditions and medical pluralism
Food and the body
Nutrition, growth, and child health
Assignment 1
Feb 23
Mar 2
Mar 9
Mar16
Mar 23
March 30
April 6
April 13
April 20
April 27
May 4
Health and reproductive rights
Mothers and infants
Spring break
Anthropology and infectious disease
Infections and inequality
Infections and inequality
Health and culture change
Health and culture change
Applied medical anthropology
Conclusion and discussion
Exam 2
Tues: Exam 1
Assignment 2
Annotated Bibliography
Course policies:
Late assignments and/or make-up exam: You are required to complete all assignments by the due date.
Make-up exams or extensions will be given at the professor’s discretion provided that you have notified me at least 2 days in advance of your absence OR you have a documented medical justification.
Plagiarism and Academic Integrity: All UGA students and faculty are expected to adhere to the principles of academic honesty and integrity. All academic work must meet the standards contained in “A
Culture of Honesty.” All students are responsible to inform themselves about those standards before performing any academic work. Plagiarism and academic dishonesty will not be tolerated and will be punished following the guidelines provided in the above documents. If you have any questions or concerns regarding issues of academic integrity, please do not hesitate to speak with me immediately.
This policy can be found online at http://www.uga.edu/honesty/ahpd/culture_honesty.htm
Students with Special Needs : If you have a disability and would like to request classroom accommodations, arrangements are made through the Disability Resource Center (542-8719). Please notify me in advance and we will follow the instructions provided in their letter.
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Course Readings : These readings are subject to change. Any modifications will be announced in class and posted on Web CT. It is your responsibility to be aware of these announced changes.
Jan 9: Introduction
Syllabus; course expectations (yours and mine)
Video: N/um Tchai: The Ceremonial Dance of the !Kung Bushmen, 1966/1974
Voices from the Sahel
Jan 13/15: Defining health, illness, and disease
Tues: History and scope of field, studying health in anthropology
Joralemon Ch 1 (p.1-16)
Thurs: What is health? How does medical anthropology study health?
Wiley Ch 2 (p.16-29)
World Health Organization. 1948. Definition of Health http://www.who.int/about/definition/en/print.html
World Health Organization web-site: http://www.who.int/en/
International Disease Classification 10 (ICD-10): http://www.who.int/classifications/icd/en/
Additional readings for week:
Leslie C. 2001. Backing into the future. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 15(4):428-439.
Inhorn MC. 2007. Medical anthropology at the intersections. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 21(3):
249-255.
Holtz TH, Holmes S, Stonington S, Eisenberg L. 2006. Health is still social: contemporary examples in the age of the genome. PLoS Medicine 3(10):e419.
Trostle Ch 1-2
Jan 20/22. Health: Bridging biology and culture
Tues: The Biocultural approach
Wiley Ch 3 (p. 30-43)
Thursday: The Biocultural approach
Boyd Eaton et al. 2002. Evolutionary Health Promotion. Preventive Medicine 34:109-118.
Additional readings:
Wiley AS. 1992. Adaptation and the Biocultural Paradigm in Medical Anthropology: a Critical
Review. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 6(3): 216-236.
Dressler W. 2005. What’s Cultural about Biocultural Research? Ethos 33(1):20-45.
Worthman CM and Kohrt B. 2005. Receding horizons of health: biocultural approaches to public health paradoxes. Social Science and Medicine 61(4): 861-878.
Ali H. 2004. A socio-ecological autopsy of the E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in Walkerton, Ontario,
Canada. Social Science and Medicine 58(12): 2601.
Jan 27/29: Health: Bridging biology, society and culture
Tuesday: Political-ecology and critical medical anthropology
Wiley Ch 4 (p. 44-57)
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Leatherman, Thomas. 2005. A space of vulnerability in poverty and health: political-ecology and biocultural analysis. Ethos. 33(1):46-70.
Thursday: Disease as a metaphor and the interpretive approach
Lock, MM. 1998. Breast cancer: reading the omens. Anthropology Today 14(4):7-16.
Additional readings:
Scheper-Hughes N, Lock MM. 1987. The Mindful Body: A Prolegomenon to Future Work in Medical
Anthropology. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 1(1): 6-41.
Oths KS. 1999. Debilidad: A Biocultural Assessment of an Embodied Andean Illness. Med Anth Quar
13(3):286-315.
Krieger N. 2005 Embodiment: A Conceptual Glossary for Epidemiology. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 59: 350-55.
Briggs C. 2002. Lessons in the time of Cholera. Working Paper Series: Woodrow Wilson
International Center for Scholars. 239:1-30.
Feb 3/5: Healers and Healing Systems
Tuesday: Healers and healing systems
Wiley Ch 6 (p.70-88)
Hahn RA. 1998. The Nocebo Phenomenon: Concept, Evidence, and Implications for Public Health. In
Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology. PJ Brown, ed. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield
Publishing Company. Pp. 138-142.
OR
Bates DG. 2000. Why Not Call Modern Medicine ‘Alternative’?. Perspectives in Biology and
Medicine 43(4):502-518.
Thursday: Medical Pluralism
Video: Healers of Ghana. 69 minutes.
Additional readings:
Moreman DE and Jonas WB. 2002. Deconstructing the placebo effect and finding the meaning response. Annals of Internal Medicine 136(6):471-476.
Brown MF. 1998. Dark Side of the Shaman. In Brown PJ, editor. Understanding and Applying
Medical Anthropology. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company. p 170-173.
Trostle, Ch 7
Feb 10/12: Food and the body
Tuesday : Food and nutrition
Brown PJ and Konner M. 1998. An Anthropological Perspective on Obesity. In Brown PJ, editor.
Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing
Company. p 138-142.
Thursday: Food and nutrition
Start reading Detwlyer Dancing Skeletons.
Additional readings:
Douglas M. 1972. Deciphering a meal. Daedalus 101:61-81.
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Weismantel M. 2005. White. In Fat: The Anthropology of an Obsession. New York: Penguin Books. p 45-62.
Gibbs WW. 2005. Obesity: an overblown epidemic? Scientific American 292(6):70-77.
Feb 17/19: Nutrition, growth, and child health
Finish reading Detwlyer. Dancing Skeletons.
Tuesday: Food and health
Thursday: Discussion of Detwlyer reading
Additional readings:
Trostle Ch 4
Feb 24/46: Health and reproductive rights
Tuesday (Feb 24): Exam 1 in class
Thursday:
WHO Female circumcision: http://www.who.int/reproductive-health/fgm/index.html
Tinery J. New York Times, Nov 30, 2007. http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/30/a-new-debate-on-female-circumcision/
Additional Readings
Shell-Duncan B. 2008. From Health to Human Rights: Female Genital Cutting and the Politics of
Intervention. American Anthropologist 110(2).
March 3/5: Health and reproduction
Tuesday: Mothers and children
Scheper-Hughes. N. 1998. Culture, Scarcity and Maternal Thinking: Maternal Detachment and Infant
Survival in a Brazilian Shantytown. In Brown PJ, editor. Understanding and Applying Medical
Anthropology. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company. Pp. 138-142.
Thursday: Parenting and children
TBA
March 17/19: Culture and Infectious Disease
Tuesday: History, culture and infectious disease
Wiley Ch 5 (p. 58-69)
Hewitt B and Amola RP. 2003 The Cultural Context of Ebola in Northern Uganda. Emerging
Infectious Diseases. 9(10):1242-1248.
Thursday: Today the Hawk takes one more Chick
Whitty CJM. 1999. Erasmus Syphilis, and the Abuse of Stigma. The Lancet 354(9196): 2147-2148.
Start Reading Farmer, Infections and Inequalities.
Additional Readings:
Garro, LC. 2000. Cultural Meaning, Explanations of Illness, and the Development of Comparative
Frameworks. Ethnology 39(4):305-334.
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Gandy M, and Zumla A. 2002. The Resurgence of Disease: Social and Historical Perspectives on the
“New” Tuberculosis. Social Science and Medicine.
55:385-396.
Hewlett BS, Epelboin A, Hewlett BL, and Formenty P. 2005 Medical Anthropology and Ebola in
Congo: Cultural Models and Humanistic Care. Bulletin de la Societe de Pathologies Exotique 98
(3):230-236.
Normile Dennis. 2007 Indonesia Taps Village Wisdom to Fight Bird Flu. Science 315(5808):30-33.
March 24/26: Infections and inequalities
Reading for week: Farmer, Infections and Inequalities (p. Introduction – p.150)
Additional reading: Trostle, Ch 5
Tuesday: Infections and Inequalities
Thursday: Discussion of Infections and Inequalities
March 31/April 2: Infections and inequalities
Reading for week: Farmer. Infections and Inequalities (p.150 to end of book)
Tuesday: Infections and Inequalities
Thursday: TBA
April 7/9: Health, culture change and disease
Tuesday: How does culture change impact health? Is change good, bad or both?
Dressler WW. 2004. Culture and the risk of disease. British Medical Bulletin 69:21-31.
Thursday: Studying ‘modernization’
McDade TW. 2002. Status incongruity in Samoan youth: a biocultural analysis of culture change, stress, and immune function. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 16(2):123-150.
Additional Reading:
Trostle, Ch 3
April 14/16: Health, culture change and disease
Tuesday; Culture change in Africa
Barkely NL, Campbell BC and Leslie PW. 2001. A comparison of health complaints of settled and nomadic Turkana men. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 159(3).
Thursday: Culture change in South America
Godoy et al. Culture change and health among the Tsimane’ of Bolivia. Unpublished manuscript.
Izquierdo C. 2005. When ‘health’ is not enough: societal, individual and biomedical assessments of well-being among Matsigenka of the Peruvian Amazon. Social Science and Medicine 61:767-783.
Additional Reading
Pike I and Williams SW. 2006. Incorporating psychosocial health into biocultural models: preliminary findings from Turkana women of Kenya. Am J Hum Bio 18(6):729-40.
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April 21/23: Applied anthropology: ethics and interpretation
Tuesday:
Wiley Ch 7-8 (p. 89-123)
Thursday:
Okie S. 2006 Global Health: The Gates-Buffett Effect. New England Journal of Medicine Sep 14;
355 (11):1084-1088.
Simon, Christian, Maghboeba Mosavel, and Debbie van Stade 2007 Ethical Challenges in the Design and Conduct of Locally Relevant International Health Research. Social Science and Medicine
64:1960-1969.
Additional Readings:
Aiga H. 2007. Bombarding people with questions: A reconsideration of survey ethics. Bulletin of the
World Health Organization. 85(11):823-824
Fox, Renee. 1995 Medical humanitarianism and human rights: Reflections on Doctors Without
Borders and Doctors of the World. Social Science & Medicine 41 (12):1607-1616.
April 28: Wrapping up
Tuesday: What have we learned? Where to go from here?
Wiley Ch 9 (p.124-131)
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