136-212 Keeping the Body in Mind: Culture, Curers and Biomedical Science

Note

Available as 136-312 at 3rd-year level.

Credit Points

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

Students who complete this subject will have an appreciation of the range of factors that contribute towards local understandings of health and illness in a variety of cultural contexts in the Western and non-Western worlds. At the end of the course students will also be able to appreciate the increasingly complex relationship and interaction between Western biomedical sciences and traditional systems of curing. Students will also be able to understand the roles played in local determinations of sickness and well-being by culturally specific belief systems concerning the nature of, and relationships between such entities as body, mind, "spirit", "soul", and the social context in which they operate.

Assessment

One 3,000 word essay and a 2 hour exam.