Students
ANTH716 – Culture, Illness and Healing
2014 – S1 Evening
General Information
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| Unit convenor and teaching staff |
Unit convenor and teaching staff
Unit Convenor
Aaron Denham
Contact via aaron.denham@mq.edu.au
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|---|---|
| Credit points |
Credit points
4
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| Prerequisites |
Prerequisites
Admission to MRes
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| Corequisites |
Corequisites
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| Co-badged status |
Co-badged status
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| Unit description |
Unit description
This unit examines the cultural and socio-economic dimensions of disease and health. Notions of disease causality and healing practices vary enormously across societies, knowledge of which is crucial to the field of international public health. We look at how anthropological knowledge and methods can be used in applied settings, for example, to improve communication between health practitioners and patients. We also address questions in critical medical anthropology, such as: How do global inequalities and violence affect health in developing countries? What larger social transformations accompany the rise of biomedicine, including recent biomedical technologies?
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Important Academic Dates
Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Introduce students to the scope of medical anthropology and to analyse and discus the literature and central theories related to medical anthropology and the broader study of illness and healing practices in their social and cultural contexts.
- Understand how biology, culture, politics, and ecology interact to shape illness and health, health systems, and patterns.
- Interview, analyse, and represent the illness experience of another person, emphasizing the integrative factors (culture, politics, social structure, etc.) influencing their condition.
- Apply the theories and concepts of medical anthropology to critically evaluate one’s own culture and determinants of illness and health.
- To understand how healing systems often cut across categories of religion, medicine, and social organization.
- To understand how illness and health (and normality) are constructed within particular social, cultural, political, and environmental contexts.
- Understand and identify how inequality, social hierarchy, and structural violence generate unequal and often unique health determinants in the global and transnational context.
Assessment Tasks
| Name | Weighting | Due |
|---|---|---|
| Participation | 15% | Weekly |
| Essay 1 | 20% | 14 April |
| Illness Narrative | 40% | Week 12 |
| Essay 2 | 25% | Exam Week |
Participation
Due: Weekly
Weighting: 15%
Active attendance and engagement with discussions and a discussion guide based on the readings will be turned in at the conclusion of each class
On successful completion you will be able to:
- Introduce students to the scope of medical anthropology and to analyse and discus the literature and central theories related to medical anthropology and the broader study of illness and healing practices in their social and cultural contexts.
- Understand how biology, culture, politics, and ecology interact to shape illness and health, health systems, and patterns.
- Interview, analyse, and represent the illness experience of another person, emphasizing the integrative factors (culture, politics, social structure, etc.) influencing their condition.
- Apply the theories and concepts of medical anthropology to critically evaluate one’s own culture and determinants of illness and health.
- To understand how healing systems often cut across categories of religion, medicine, and social organization.
- To understand how illness and health (and normality) are constructed within particular social, cultural, political, and environmental contexts.
- Understand and identify how inequality, social hierarchy, and structural violence generate unequal and often unique health determinants in the global and transnational context.
Essay 1
Due: 14 April
Weighting: 20%
A 1,500-2,000 word essay based on topics, questions, or themes related to the unit.
On successful completion you will be able to:
- Introduce students to the scope of medical anthropology and to analyse and discus the literature and central theories related to medical anthropology and the broader study of illness and healing practices in their social and cultural contexts.
- Understand how biology, culture, politics, and ecology interact to shape illness and health, health systems, and patterns.
- Apply the theories and concepts of medical anthropology to critically evaluate one’s own culture and determinants of illness and health.
- To understand how healing systems often cut across categories of religion, medicine, and social organization.
- To understand how illness and health (and normality) are constructed within particular social, cultural, political, and environmental contexts.
- Understand and identify how inequality, social hierarchy, and structural violence generate unequal and often unique health determinants in the global and transnational context.
Illness Narrative
Due: Week 12
Weighting: 40%
Interview a friend or family member about an illness and write a paper illustrating their illness experience.
On successful completion you will be able to:
- Understand how biology, culture, politics, and ecology interact to shape illness and health, health systems, and patterns.
- Interview, analyse, and represent the illness experience of another person, emphasizing the integrative factors (culture, politics, social structure, etc.) influencing their condition.
- To understand how healing systems often cut across categories of religion, medicine, and social organization.
- To understand how illness and health (and normality) are constructed within particular social, cultural, political, and environmental contexts.
Essay 2
Due: Exam Week
Weighting: 25%
A 2,000-2,500 word essay based on topics, questions, or themes related to the unit.
On successful completion you will be able to:
- Introduce students to the scope of medical anthropology and to analyse and discus the literature and central theories related to medical anthropology and the broader study of illness and healing practices in their social and cultural contexts.
- Understand how biology, culture, politics, and ecology interact to shape illness and health, health systems, and patterns.
- Apply the theories and concepts of medical anthropology to critically evaluate one’s own culture and determinants of illness and health.
- To understand how healing systems often cut across categories of religion, medicine, and social organization.
- To understand how illness and health (and normality) are constructed within particular social, cultural, political, and environmental contexts.
- Understand and identify how inequality, social hierarchy, and structural violence generate unequal and often unique health determinants in the global and transnational context.
Delivery and Resources
Please access the offical and final version of the unit guide via iLearn.
The course convener will use the first half of the seminar to introduce concepts, provide background information or examples, or offer an overview of the key issues under discussion. The second half of the seminar will be devoted to discussing the issues and readings.
Seminar attendance and participation are mandatory. Students are expected to be active participants and demonstrate that they have actively engaged the readings and material presented.
All other required readings will be available electronically on iLearn.
Unit Schedule
Please access the final and official schedule via the unit guide link in iLearn
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Week |
Date |
Lecture |
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1 |
5 March |
Introduction to and Scope of Medical Anthropology
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2 |
12 March |
Belief, Healing, Meaning: “Why me? Why now?”
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3 |
19 March |
The Illness Experience I: Constructing Disorder, Experience, and Meaning
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4 |
26 March |
The Illness Experience II: Illness Narratives and Finding Culture and Stress in Talk
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5 |
2 April |
The Culture of Biomedicine
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6 |
9 April |
The Critical Perspective: Pathologies of Power, Structural Violence, and Health as Human Right
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7 |
30 April |
Global Health
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8 |
7 May |
Cultural Competency
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9 |
14 May |
The Body and Embodiment
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10 |
21 May |
Research and Reading Week |
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11 |
28 May |
Organ Transplantation and Trafficking
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12 |
4 June |
Global Mental Health
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13 |
11 June |
Doctors of Two Worlds?: Applying Medical Anthropology
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Learning and Teaching Activities
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In addition, a number of other policies can be found in the Learning and Teaching Category of Policy Central.
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