Health and inequality are intrinsically linked and shape everyday life throughout Latin America. Recent political developments in Latin America with a tendency to left-wing governments in Brazil, Venezuela, Cuba and Bolivia among others in contrast to neo-liberal governments in Columbia and Peru have again increased interest in Latin America’s political-economic affairs. Chinese investors competing with traditional US-American political-economic interests increase corruption of already weak governments. In addition, recent turbulences on the global market, increasing inflation, and increasing food prices have a direct impact on every Latinos daily practice. However, indigenous Amazonian and Andean and rural and urban impoverished indigenous and mestizo people throughout Latin America are the most vulnerable and directly affected by political and economic instability. Rapid urban growth without infrastructure and environmental degradation on the other hand have had an impact on the emergence and re-emergence of infectious disease such as cholera, dengue fever, malaria, multi-drug resistant tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. The complexity of factors that shape every person’s perception of health and struggle for health care and survival on a daily basis has to be understood in a historical, local and national context that is influenced by global forces. To approach the lived reality in diverse Latin American contexts it is crucial to analyse the strategies of how each nation state has dealt with the colonization, independence, creation of the nation state, racism debates, agrarian reform, monetization of rural economies, social resistance movements and revolutions, rural to urban migration and rapid growth of urban centres, neoliberal structural adjustment policies, privatization and increasing poverty, transnational migration and globalization.

In this course we will use case studies from across Latin America to explore the historical, environmental, biosocial, political economic and socio-cultural factors that influence individual and collective therapy management, local healing practices, national health care, and medical research and health policies in their local, national and international context.

On completion of the course the student will be able to:

• Apply critical medical anthropological thinking to analyse and evaluate current Latin American health context.
• Apply medical anthropological skills to develop, analyse, conduct and evaluate health related programs.
  

30% online discussion forum

70% essay of 5000-6000 words