The course provides an introduction to the field of medical anthropology. It includes the application of different forms of social and cultural analysis to the study of health, illness, and healing. Examples of medical systems and medical practices are drawn from a range of cultures including our own. In the first part of the course the scope of medical anthropology will be covered and different approaches to the understanding of the body discussed. An important aspect of medical anthropology is the study of the social and cultural construction of illness and illness categories, healers and their roles, the foundations of efficacy in healing, and the place of individual and social agency in health and illness which will be covered in detail. In the second half of the course health and human rights, pharmaceuticals and ethics of medical research and organ trafficking will be the centre of the discussion.

Students who satisfy the requirements of this course will have the knowledge and skills:

• to demonstrate a critical appreciation of the key concepts and approaches in medical anthropology
• to engage in health work and understand the likely social, cultural, political and economic factors influencing health, illness and sickness
• to reflect critically on their own experiences of health and inequality in Australia in the light of the concepts and methods introduced in this course.

Two hours of lectures and one hour of tutorial per week

*No required reading. However, the following texts are recommended as background reading:

Baer, H.A, M Singer and I Susser (2003) Medical Anthropology and the
World System: Second Edition.  Westport, CT: Praeger.
 
Brown, P.J (1998) Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology: Second
Edition.  Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.
 
Sargent, C.F and T.M Johnson (1996) Medical Anthropology: Contemporary
Theory and Method: Revised Edition.  Westport, CT: Praeger.