Anthropology 306
Medical Anthropology

Dr. Bruce D. Roberts
Department of Anthropology and Earth Science

Official course description: "A survey of the distributions of illness throughout the world with emphasis on the definitions, treatments, and practitioners as well as the cultural settings producing them."

This course deals with human health, illness and curing. More than any other area of the discipline, medical anthropology covers matters of both biological and cultural concern. By virtue of our physical constitution, all humans experience illness and eventually all humans will die. Moreover, all human societies have developed medical systems that are designed to diagnose and treat illness. In this course we will examine the specific ways that members of different human societies envision health and treat illness and how they are affected by cultural and social circumstances. Thus we will emphasize, from an applied perspective, the cultural and social components of disease etiologies (how diseases are understood causally), the diagnosis and treatment of illnesses, and healthcare access within and across societies. We will conclude by considering the commoditization of health today and the inequitable distribution of disease around the world.

Last updated 10/17/08
by Bruce Roberts