Medical Anthropology

Anthropology 415

Course Syllabus

Fall 2003

Instructor: Dan Brown

Office: EKH 262

Office hours: Tues. and Thurs. 9 AM - 11:15 AM

Phone: 974-7468

Course Goals

Anthropology 415 is a course designed to be a brief introduction to anthropological views of health and medicine. The course attempts to give an objective view of various Western approaches to medicine and to allow you to compare these approaches with those used in non-Western cultures. The instructor's goals are:

! to give students the ability to appraise critically various attitudes about health and disease

! to present current approaches to the effects of behavior and culture on health

! to outline major work in ethnomedicine

! to give students experience with presenting and learning from seminars

Required Texts

Dettwyler, Katherine, Dancing Skeletons

McElroy, Ann and Patricia Townsend, Medical Anthropology, 4th edition

Young, et al., Cry of the Eagle

All are paperbacks

Plus selected readings to be handed out in class

Evaluation of Students

There will be two quizzes and a final examination. Each quiz accounts for 15% of the final grade. The final exam will account for 20% of the final grade. The quizzes and final exam will be in-class tests with study questions to be handed out the week before each. Also, students will be required to write a paper and present both a written abstract and verbal summary of it to the class during the semester. A first draft is also required as part of the paper grade. Drafts will receive extensive comments but will only have a small impact on the final paper grade so long as a reasonably complete first draft is received on time. The final paper grade will be based primarily on the quality of the final draft, so attention to suggestions made on the first draft is crucial. This paper/presentation (including abstract) will account for 25% of the grade. Homework assignments will be due each week based on reading assignments. These assignments will account for 15% of the final grade. Finally, since the course will be presented in part as a seminar, class participation will account for 10% of the final grade. This will include group work with class presentations, as well as a brief seminar presentation during the semester.

The tentative exam schedule is:

Quiz 1: Thursday, September 25 (All study questions handed out by September 18)

Quiz 2: Tuesday, October 28 (All study questions handed out by October 21)

Paper: Class reports to be scheduled during semester

Written papers due:

first draft: October 30 [suggestions/comments handed back by November 6]

final copy: November 18

Final exam: Thursday, December 18, 11:50 AM (All study questions handed out by December 9)

Some House Rules

! Pagers and cell phones are to be turned off during class periods unless there is a medical emergency that requires their use.

! The deadlines listed here are real ones. Grades will be lowered by a third (e.g., A to A-; B+ to B) for each day an assignment is late.

! Services for Students with Disabilities: Any student with a documented disability who would like to request accommodation should contact either the instructor or Susan Shirachi-Gonzalves, the Director of University Disability Services (phone: 933-0816), as early in the semester as possible. Also, students who believe they have special needs (e.g., speak English as a second language) should discuss their concerns with the instructor as early in the semester as possible.

! It is highly recommended that students speak with their academic advisors at least once each semester to make sure they are “on track” for their academic goals.

Course Outline

The following represents a brief outline of the course material. There is a great deal of room for flexibility depending upon student interest and class discussions. The

required reading for each section is listed in the outline. More specific assignments for each class will be given during the semester, and this will include a few additional readings besides the required texts. You must keep up with the reading in order to take part in class discussions!

I. Introduction: Views of Health, Disease and Medicine

A. Traditional Western View

B. Sociocultural View

C. Ecological View

D. Some Non-Western Views: An Overview

Reading: Dettwyler, Chapters 1 and 2

McElroy and Townsend, Intro., Chapter 1, Appendix

Handouts of additional readings

II. Modern Western Views of Health, Disease and Medicine

A. Human Adaptability

Reading: Dettwyler, Chapters 3 - 5

McElroy and Townsend, Chapters 2 and 3

B. The Germ Theory, Immunity and Cures

Reading: Dettwyler, Chapters 6 and 7

Handouts of additional readings

C. Epidemiology

Reading: Dettwyler, Chapters 8 and 9

Handouts of additional readings

D. Genetics and the History of Disease

Reading: McElroy and Townsend, Chapter 4

Handouts of additional readings

E. Nutrition

Reading: Dettwyler, Chapters 10 - 12, and "Freedom from Hunger" essay

McElroy and Townsend, Chapters 5 and 6

F. Chronic Diseases and Stress

Reading: McElroy and Townsend, Chapter 7

III. Non-Western Medical Systems: Some Ethnographic Examples

A. Statuses and Roles

B. Ideas About Causation

C. Ideas About Treatment

D. Medicine and Health in Cultural Perspective

Reading: McElroy and Townsend, Chapter 8

Young, et al., Preface and pp.1-77

Handouts of additional readings

IV. Applied Medical Anthropology

A. Imposed Westernization of Medical Systems

B. Competing Health Care Systems

C. The Anthropologist's Role

D. Conclusion

Reading: Dettwyler, Chapters 13 and 14

McElroy and Townsend, Chapter 9

Young, et al., pp. 78-138

Proposed Class Schedule

8/26 Class #1 General Introduction

8/28 Class #2 Introduction: Views of Health, Disease and Medicine; Group Project #1: Defining Health and Disease

Week 1 Reading: Dettwyler: Chapters 1-2;

McElroy: Intro, Chapter 1;

Miner, Horace, 1956, “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema,” Am. Anthropol. pp. 503-507.

9/2 Class #3 Human Adaptability; Finish Group Project #1

9/4 Class #4 Germ Theory and Infectious Disease

Week 2 Reading: Dettwyler, Chapters 3-4;

McElroy, Chapter 2 and Appendix;

Sabbagh, Karl, 1985, The Psychobiology of Fringe Medicine,” Skeptical Inq. 10:154-164.

Burnet, Sir MacFarlane and David O. White, Natural History of Infectious

Disease, 4^th Edition, Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, pp. 22-31

9/9 Class #5 Infectious Disease Agents

9/11 Class #6 Host and Parasite; Group Project #2: Blindness

Week 3 Reading: Dettwyler, Chapters 5-6;

McElroy, Chapter 3;

Dubos, Rene, 1965, Man Adapting, New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 163- 195.

9/16 Class #7 Immunology; Group Project #2 Continued

9/18 Class #8 Cures: The Magic Bullet [Quiz 1 questions handed out]; Group Project #2 Continued

Week 4 Reading: Dettwyler, Chapter 7;

Dubos, Rene, 1987, Mirage of Health, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press, pp. 62-94;

Panosian, Claire, 2001, Magic Bullets Fly Again. Sci. Amer., October.

Weir, Donald M and John Stewart, 1997, Immunology, New York: Churchill Livingstone, pp. 3-15.

9/23 Class #9 Epidemiology: How Disease Spreads; Finish Group Project #2

9/25 Class #10 Quiz 1; Epidemiology (continued)

Week 5 Reading: Dettwyler, Chapters 8-9;

Kormondy, E.J. and Brown, D., 1998, Fundamentals of Human Ecology, Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, pp. 202-224.

9/30 Class #11 Paleopathology

10/2 Class #12 Genetics - In Depth: Sickle Cell Disease

Week 6 Reading: McElroy: Chapter 4;

Wood, C.S., 1979, Human Sickness and Health, Palo Alto, Calif.: Mayfield, pp. 1 - 40.

10/7 Class #13 Nutrition

10/9 Class #14 Nutrition (continued)

Week 7 Reading: Dettwyler, Chapters 10-12 and “Freedom from Hunger” essay;

McElroy and Townsend, Chapters 5-6

10/14 Class #15 Food and Society

10/16 Class #16 Stress and Disease

Week 8 Reading: McElroy and Townsend, Chapter 7

Dettwyler, Chapters 13-14

Brown, D.E., 1981, “General stress in anthropological fieldwork,” American Anthropologist, 83:74-92.

10/21 Class #17 Chronic Disease - In Depth: Diabetes Mellitus; [Quiz 2 questions handed out]

10/23 Class #18 Some Health Problems Among Pacific Islanders; Group Project #3: Pacific Health

Week 9 Reading: Kormondy, E.J. and Brown, D., 1998, Fundamentals of Human Ecology, Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, pp. 227-250.

10/28 Class #19 Quiz #2; Some Health Problems Among Pacific Islanders (continued); Group Project #3 (Continued)

10/30 Class #20 First drafts of papers due; Introduction to Non-Western Medical Systems; Finish Group Project #3

Week 10 Reading: McGarvey, Stephen T., et al., 1989, “Modernization and adiposity: causes and consequences,” In: Human Population Biology, ed. PT Baker, JM Hanna and TS Baker, New York: Oxford Univ. Press, pp. 263-279.

11/4 Class #21 Ethnomedicine: Introduction

11/6 Class #22 Ideas about Disease Causation; [Paper drafts returned]

Week 11 Reading: Young: pp. 1 - 55

11/13 Class #23 Ayurvedic Medicine

Week 12 Reading: McElroy, Chapter 8

Young: pp. 56-92

11/18 Class #24 Final drafts of papers due; Other Examples of Non-Western Medicine

11/20 Class #25 Other Examples of Non-Western Medicine (continued)

Week 13 Reading: Young, pp. 93-138

11/25 Class #26 Applied Medical Anthropology

Week 14 Reading: McElroy, Chapter 9

12/2 Class #27 Applied Medical Anthropology (continued)

12/4 Class #28 Student Seminars

Week 15 Reading: Student abstracts

12/9 Class #29 Student Seminars [Finals handed out]

12/11 Class #30 Student Seminars; Summing up

Week 16 Reading: Student Abstracts

12/18 --------- Final Exam; 11:50 AM - 1:50 PM in EKH-109