MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Anthropology 352
Pamela Erickson, Dr. P.H., Ph.D.
Spring 2002 Office: 431 Beach Hall
2-5 p.m. Wednesday Phone: 486-1736
Beach Hall Colloquium Room
pamela.erickson@uconn.edu
Course Description and Objectives
This course provides an overview of the field of medical anthropology. There are three major foci of the course: 1) theoretical frameworks in medical anthropology; 2) the study of medical systems; and 3) applications of medical anthropology to world health issues. The course will be conducted in seminar style. Active participation and contribution to class discussion are expected of all students.
Assignments and Evaluation
Your grade will be based on preparation and participation in class (50%) and a term paper (50%). There will be no formal examinations.
Class Participation: Students will be evaluated for their familiarity with required readings, their preparation and leadership on individually assigned readings, and their general class participation. Individual readings: For most class sessions, one or more readings will be assigned to or claimed by students who have a special interest in the topic. These students will be responsible for a thorough reading and evaluation of the assigned reading. A short 1-3 page synopsis and critique of the reading is due at the class period prior to discussion of the reading. These synopses will be duplicated for distribution so that class members can read them prior to the seminar in which the readings will be discussed. Students who wrote the synopses will present the material in class and lead discussion. Depending on class size, students can anticipate presenting 3-5 times over the semester.
Term Paper: A paper of no more than
25 pages in length (typed, double-spaced) is required. Students will select
an area of medical anthropology in which they are interested and will provide
an overview of current anthropological activity in that area. Please clear
your topic with me by April 10. All papers are due on the last day of
class, May 1, when students will present a short summary of their research
to the class.
BOOKS AND READINGS
Required Books
Brown, Peter J. 1998. Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology. Mayfield Publishing.
*Budrys, Grace 2001. Our Unsystematic Health Care System. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
*Helman, Cecil G. 2000. Culture, Health, and Illness. Fourth Edition. London: Arnold Publishers.
*McElroy, Ann and Patricia K. Townsend 1996. Medical Anthropology in Ecological Perspective. Third Edition. Westview Press.
Nesse, Randolph M. 1996. Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine. Vintage Books.
*Nichter, Mark (ed.) 1992. Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Ethnomedicine. Gordon and Breach Science Publishers.
*Sargent, Carolyn F. and Thomas F. Johnson (eds.) 1996. Medical Anthropology. Contemporary Theory and Method. Greenwood Publishing Group
Recommended (not ordered at book store)
Michael H. Merson, Robert E. Black, and Anne J. Mills (eds.) 2001. International Public Health. Diseases, Programs, Systems, and Policies. Aspen Publishers.
These books can be purchased at the Uconn Co-Op and, if starred (*) above, are also on reserve at the Homer Babbidge Library.
Required Readings
Readings which are not in the textbooks
will be starred (*) and will be available in the Anthropology Reading Room
in Beach Hall, 4th floor, Room 432.
CLASS SCHEDULE
1. January 23 Organizational Meeting & Overview
Theoretical Perspectives
2. January 30 Ecology and Adaptation, Evolutionary Medicine
3. February 6 Political Economy, Critical Medical Anthropology
4. February 13 Interpretive, Cultural Construction, Suffering
Biocultural Approaches to Health Issues in the Life Cycle
5. February 20 Demographic and Health Transitions / Health Disparities
6. February 27 Perrti Pelto and Lakshmi Ramachandar - medical anthropology in India
7. March 6 No class - SfAA Meetings, Atlanta, GA - March 6-10
8. March 13 Infectious Diseases/ Food and Nutrition - meet 1-4
9. Spring Break March 16-24
10. March 27 Chronic Diseases, Violence, and ATOD
Comparative Study of Medical Systems
11. April 3 Sex and Reproduction - meet 1-4
12. April 10 Ethnomedicine - Concepts and Case Studies
13. April 17 Biomedicine and the U.S. Health Care System
Applying Medical Anthropology
14. April 24 Applied Medical Anthropology / International Health
15. May 1 Class Presentations - Term Papers Due - meet 1-4
READINGS
1. January 23 Introduction to Medical Anthropology
Brown Reader
Introduction, pp. 1-9.
Brown, et al. Medical Anthropology: An Introduction to the Fields, pp. 10-19.
* Robert W. Lieban, The Field of Medical Anthropology, pp. 13- 31 in David Landy (ed.), Culture, Disease, and Healing: Studies in Medical Anthropology, 1977.
* Edward Wellin, Theoretical Orientations in Medical Anthropology: Continuity and Change 0ver the Past half Century, pp. 47-58 in David Landy (ed.), Culture, Disease, and Healing: Studies in Medical Anthropology, 1977.
2. January 30 Ecology and Adaptation
McElroy & Townsend
Chapter 1. The Ecology of Health and Disease, pp. 2-29.
Chapter 2. Interdisciplinary Research, pp. 32- 71.
Chapter 3. Genes, Culture, and Adaptation, pp. 74-118.
Sargent & Johnson
Brown, et al., Disease, Ecology, and Human Behavior, pp. 183-218.
Nesse & Williams
Chapter 1. The Mystery of Disease, pp. 3-12.
Chapter 2. Evolution by Natural Selection, pp. 13-25.
* Alexander Alland, Jr., Medical Anthropology and the Study of Biological Adaptation, pp. 41-46 in David Landy (ed.), Culture, Disease, and Healing: Studies in Medical Anthropology, 1977.
3. February 6 Political Economy & Critical Anthropology
Sargent & Johnson
Morsy, Political Economy in Medical Anthropology, pp. 21-40.
* Baer, Hans A., Merrill Singer, & Ida Susser, in Medical Anthropology and the World System: A Critical Perspective, 1997.
Central Concepts and Development, pp. 3-19.
Theoretical Perspectives in Medical Anthropology, In, pp. 20-36.
* MAQ 10(4), 1996
Baer, Hans A., Towards a Political Ecology of Health in Medical Anthropology, pp. 451-454.
Singer, Merrill, Farewell to Adaptationism: Unnatural Selection and the Politics of Biology, pp. 496-515.
Morsy, Soheir, More Than Dialogue: Contributions to the Recapturing of Anthropology, pp. 516-518.
McElroy, Ann, Should Medical Ecology be Political?, pp. 519-522.
Student Presentations
Brown Reader
Farmer, Social Inequalities and Emerging Infectious Diseases, pp. 98-107. [Amy]
Scheper-Hughes & Lock, The Mindful Body, pp. 208-224. [Didi]
Singer, Beyond the ivory Tower: Critical Praxis in Medical Anthropology, pp. 225-239. [Ariela]
Singer, et al., Why Does Juan García Have a Drinking Problem?, pp. 286- 302. [Meredith]
4. February 13 Interpretive, Social Construction, Suffering
Sargent & Johnson
Lock and Scheper-Hughes, A Critical-Interpretive Approach in Medical Anthropology:
Rituals and Routines of Discipline and Dissent, pp. 41-70.
Jenkins, Culture, Emotion, and Psychiatric Disorder, pp. 71-87.
Chrisman & Johnson, Clinically Applied Anthropology, 88-109.
*Peter Conrad and Joseph W. Schneider in Deviance and Medicalization: From Badness to Sickness, 1992.
Deviance, Definitions, and the Medical Profession, pp. 1- 16.
Changing Designations of Deviance and Social Control, pp. 17-37.
A Theoretical Statement on the Medicalization of Deviance, pp. 261-276.
Deviance and Medicalization: A Decade Later,
pp. 277-292.
Student Presentations
Brown Reader
Waxler, Learning to Be a Leper: A Case Study in the Social Construction of Illness, pp. 147-157. [Meredith]
Clark, Gender and Generation in Poor Women's Household Health Production Experiences, pp. 158-168. [Didi]
Becker, Coping with Stigma: Lifelong Adaptation of Deaf People, pp. 311-315. [Meredith]
Murphy, The Damaged Self, pp. 322-333. [Ariela]
Farmer and Kleinman, AIDS as Human Suffering, pp. 333-344. [Ariela]
Martin, Medical Metaphors of Women's Bodies: Menstruation and Menopause, pp, 345- 356. [Didi]
Scheper-Hughes, Culture, Scarcity, and Maternal Thinking: Maternal Attachment and Infant Survival in a Brazilian Shantytown, pp. 375-387. [Amy]
5. February 20 Demographic and Health Transitions / Health Disparities
McElroy & Townsend
Chapter 4. Changing Patterns of Birth and Death, pp. 119-167.
* Adnan Ali Hyder and Richard H. Morrow 2001. Disease Burden Measurement and Trends, pp. 1-52 in Michael H. Merson, Robert E. Black, and Anne J. Mills (eds.), International Public Health. Diseases, Programs, Systems, and Policies. Aspen Publishers.
* David A. Leon and Gill Walt 2001. Poverty, Inequality, and Health in International Perspective: A Divided World?, pp. 1-16 in Leon and Walt (eds.) Poverty, Inequality, and Health.
* Nancy Adler, et al. 1999. Socioeconomic Status and Health: The Challenge of the Gradient, pp. 181-201. In Mann, et al. (eds.), Health and Human Rights. Routledge.
* Gutierrez, Emily C. Zielinski and Carl Kendall 2000. The Globalization of Health and Disease: The Health Transition and Global Change, pp. 84-99 in Albrecht, Gary L., Ray Fitzparick, and Susan C. Scrimshaw (eds.), The Handbook of Social Studies in Health and Medicine, SAGE Publications.
6. February 27 Infectious Diseases
Nesse & Williams
Chapter 3. Signs and Symptoms of Infectious Disease, pp. 26-48.
Chapter 4. An Arms Race Without End, pp. 49-65.
* Arthur L. Reingold and Christina R. Phares 2001. Infectious Diseases, pp. 139-206 in Michael H. Merson, Robert E. Black, and Anne J. Mills (eds.), International Public Health. Diseases, Programs, Systems, and Policies. Aspen Publishers.
* Paul E. Farmer, David A. Walton, and Jennifer J. Furin, The Changing Face of AIDS: Implications for Policy and Practice, in Mayer and Pizer (eds.) The Emergence of AIDS, pp. 139-161.
Student Presentations
Brown Reader
Armelagos, Health and Disease in Prehistoric Populations in Transition, 59-69. [Meredith]
McKeown, Determinants of Health, pp. 70- 76. [Didi]
Brown, Cultural Adaptations to Endemic Malaria in Sardinia, pp. 79-92. [Amy]
7. March 6 Food and Nutrition
McElroy & Townsend
Chapter 5. The Ecology and Economics of Nutrition, pp. 169-202.
Chapter 6. Nutrition and Health throughout the Life Cycle, pp. 203-236.
* Pelto, Gretel H. and Pertti J. Pelto 2000. Diet and Delocalization: Dietary Changes Since 1750, pp. 269-278 in Goodman, Alan H., Darna L. Dufour, and Gretel H. Pelto (eds), Nutritional Anthropology. Biocultural Perspectives on Food and Nutrition, Mayfield Publishing Company.
Brown Reader
Brown & Konner (1990) An Anthropological Perspective on Obesity, pp. 401-413.
* Fitchen, Janet M. 2000. Hunger, Malnutrition, and Poverty in the Contemporary United States: Some Observations on Their Social and Cultural Context, pp. 335-347 in Goodman, Alan H., Darna L. Dufour, and Gretel H. Pelto (eds), Nutritional Anthropology. Biocultural Perspectives on Food and Nutrition, Mayfield Publishing Company.
Sargent and Johnson
Quandt, Nutrition in Medical Anthropology, pp. 272-289.
8. March 13 Chronic Diseases, Violence, ATOD, and Stress
* David V. McQueen, Matthew T. McKenna, and David A. Sleet 2001.Chronic Diseases and Injury, pp. 293-330 in Michael H. Merson, Robert E. Black, and Anne J. Mills (eds.), International Public Health. Diseases, Programs, Systems, and Policies. Aspen Publishers
Nesse & Williams
Chapter 5. Injury, pp. 66-76.
Chapter 6. Toxins: New, Old, and Everywhere, pp. 77-90.
Chapter 7. Genes and Disease: Defects, Quirks, and Compromises, pp. 91-106.
Chapter 8. Aging as the Fountain of Youth, pp. 107-122.
Chapter 9. Legacies of Evolutionary History, pp. 123-1142.
Chapter 10. Diseases of Civilization, pp. 143-157. Chapter 11. Allergy, pp. 158-170.
Chapter 12. Cancer, pp. 171-181.
Chapter 14. Are Mental Disorders Diseases?, pp. 207-233.
McElroy & Townsend
Chapter 7. Stress, Illness, and Healing, pp. 237-280.
Sargent & Johnson
Dressler, Culture, Stress, and Disease, pp. 252-271.
Bennett and Cook, Alcohol and Drug Studies, pp. 235-251.
Brown Reader
Eaton, et al., Stoneagers in the Fast Lane: Chronic Degenerative Diseases in
Evolutionary Perspective, pp. 21-33.
9. March 17-24
Spring Break - no class
10. March 27 Sex and Reproduction
Nesse & Williams
Chapter 14. Sex and Reproduction, pp. 182-206.
Sargent & Johnson
Browner and Sargent, Anthropology and Studies of Human Reproduction, p. 219-234.
* Fisher, Helen 1995. The Nature and Evolution of Romantic Love, pp.23-41. In Jankowiak, William (ed.) Romantic Passion. A Universal Experience? New York: Columbia Univ. Press.
* Gagnon, John H. 1991. The Explicit and Implicit Use of the Scripting Perspective in Sex Research, pp. 1-43 in Bancroft and Weinstein (eds.), Annual Review of Sex Research. Society for the Scientific Study of Sex. Mt Vernon, IA.
* National Research Council 1989. Executive Summary, pp. 1-3. Contraception and Reproduction. Health Consequences for Women and Children in the Developing World.
* Rosenfield and Crone 2001. Family and Reproductive Health, pp. 188-195 in Koop, Pearson, and Schwarz (eds.), Critical Issues in Global Health, Jossey-Bass.
11. April 3 Ethnomedicine - Concepts
Sargent & Johnson
Rubel and Hass, Ethnomedicine, p. 113-130.
Hughes, Ethnopsychiatry, pp. 131-150.
Etkin, Ethnopharmacology, pp. 151-164.
* Helman
Chapter 2. Anatomy and Physiology, pp.12-36.
Chapter 4. Sectors of Health Care, pp.63-100.
Chapter 5. Doctor-Patient Relations, pp.101-145.
* O'Connor
Chapter 1. Defining and Understanding
Health Belief Systems, pp.1-34.
* Turner, Bryan S. The History of the Changing Concepts of Health nad Illness: Outline of a General Model of Ill ness Categories, pp. 9-23 in Albrecht, Gary L., Ray Fitzparick, and Susan C. Scrimshaw (eds.), The Handbook of Social Studies in Health and Medicine, SAGE Publications.
Student Presentations
Brown Reader
Foster, Disease Etiologies in Non-Western Medical Systems, pp. 110-117. [Ariela]
Finkler, Sacred Healing and Biomedicine Compared, pp. 118-128. [Didi]
Lévi-Strauss, The Sorcerer and His Magic, pp. 129-137.
Brown, Dark Side of the Shaman, pp. 170-173. [Amy]
Rubel, The Epidemiology of a Folk Illness: Susto in Hispanic America, pp. 196-206. [Didi]
* Nichter, M. (ed.) 1992/94.
Introduction, ix-xxii.
Anderson, R. The Efficacy of Ethnomedicine, pp. 1-17. [Meredith]
12. April 10 Ethnomedicine - Case Studies
* Nichter, M. (ed.) 1992/94.
Nichter, M. Ethnomedicine: Diverse Trends,
Common Linkages, pp. 223-259.
Student Presentations
Brown Reader
Kleinman, Do Psychiatric Disorders Differ in Different Cultures?, pp. 185-196. [Ariela]
Dressler, Ethnomedical Beliefs and Patient Adherence to a Treatment Regimen, pp. 243-248. [Meredith]
CDC, Health Beliefs and Adherence to Prescribed Medication for Hypertension Among Black Women -- New Orleans, pp. 248-250. [Didi]
Harwood, The Hot-Cold Theory of Disease: Implications for the Treatment of Puerto Rican Patients, pp. 251-258. [Meredith]
Hahn, The State of Federal Health Statistics on Racial and Ethnic Groups, pp. 261-268. [Amy]
Trotter, A Case of Lead Poisoning from Folk Remedies in Mexican American Communities, pp. 279-286. [Meredith]
* Nichter, M. (ed.) 1992/94.
Weller, et al. An Epidemiological Description of a Folk Illness: A Study of Empacho in Guatemala, pp. 19-31. [Didi]
Glass-Coffin, Discourse, Daño, and Healing in North Coastal Peru, pp. 33-55. [Didi]
Brodwin, P. Guardian Angels and Dirty Spirits: The Moral Basis of Healing Power in Rural Haiti, pp. 57-74. [Amy]
Nuckolls, Deciding How to Decide: Possession-Mediumship in Jalari Divination, pp. 75-100. [Meredith]
Sobo, E.J. "Unclean Deeds": Menstrual Taboos and Binding Ties in Rural Jamaica, pp. 101-126. [Didi]
Taylor, The Harp That Plays by Itself, pp. 127-148. [Meredith]
Adams, V. The Production of Self and Body in Sherpa-Tibetan Society, pp. 149-190.
Laderman, C. Malay Medicine, Malay Person, pp. 191-206.
Trawick, M. An Ayurvedic Theory of Cancer, pp. 207-222. [Ariela]
13. April 17 Biomedicine and the U.S. Health Care System
Budrys, Grace 2001. Our Unsystematic Health Care System. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Nesse & Williams
Chapter 15. The Evolution of Medicine, pp. 234-249.
Sargent & Johnson
Rhodes, Studying Biomedicine as a Cultural System, pp. 165-180.
Pelto and Pelto, Research Designs in Medical Anthropology, pp. 293-346.
Marshall and Koenig, Bioethics and Anthropology, pp. 350-373.
14. April 24 Applied Medical Anthropology / International Health
Sargent & Johnson
Pelto and Pelto, Research Designs in Medical Anthropology, pp. 293-346.
Marshall and Koenig, Bioethics and Anthropology, pp. 350-373.
Last, The Professionalization of Indigenous Healers, pp. 374-395.
Lane and Rubinstein, International Health: Problems and Programs in Anthropological Perspective, pp. 398-423.
McElroy & Townsend
Chapter 8. Health Resources in Changing Cultures, pp. 282-325.
Chapter 9. Costs and Benefits of Development, pp. 328-377.
* Gro Harlem Brundtland 2001. The Future of the World's Health, pp. 3- 11 in Koop, Pearson, and Schwarz (eds.), Critical Issues in Global Health, Jossey-Bass.
* Helman
Chapter 13. Medical Anthropology and Global Health, pp. 338-383.
Student Presentations
Brown Reader
Kendall, et al., Ethnomedicine and Oral
Rehydration Therapy: A Case Study of Ethnomedical Investigation and Program
Planning,
pp. 415-422. [Amy]
Nichter and Cartwright, Saving the Children for the Tobacco Industry, pp. 422-433. [Meredith]
Heggenhougen, The Epidemiology of Functional Apartheid and Human Rights Abuses, pp. 434- 438. [Ariela]
15. May 1 Class Presentations - Term Papers Due