121-055 Keeping the Body in Mind

This subject is an introduction to the key concepts and debates in medical anthropology. We examine the way in which knowledge about health, sickness and healing is the product of specific, historical, social and cultural contexts. The body is the site for knowledge and experience about sickness and healing and accordingly we examine the way that concepts about the body in health and sickness are related to cultural, social and political formations and values. Our own culture and predominant medical system (biomedicine) is examined in the latter part of the subject in order to understand how our assumptions about the body, self, and sickness are neither natural nor neutral, but are culturally embedded and intimately linked with relations of power. Examples may include shamanism, witchcraft, Ayurvedic medicine, ethnopsychiatry and cyberbodies.

• demonstrate research skills through competent use of the library and other information sources;

• demonstrate understanding of social, ethical and cultural context through the contextualisation of judgements;

• develop a critical self-awareness, being open to new ideas and possibilities and by constructing an argument;

• show critical thinking and analysis through recommended reading, essay writing and tutorial discussion, and by determining the strength of an argument.

An essay and a take-home exam totalling 4000 words.