Syllabus 2017 Spring

ANTH 2136: World Perspectives on Health

"The poorest parts of the world are by and large the places in which one can best view the worst of medicine and not because doctors in these countries have different ideas about what constitutes modern medicine. It's the system and its limitations that are to blame." Paul Farmer

"Anywhere you have extreme poverty and no national health insurance, no promise of health care regardless of social standing, that's where you see the sharp limitations of market-based health care." Paul Farmer

An Exploration of Medical Anthropology

Spring 2017

B014

8:30-10:20

Professor Laurie Greene

Office Hours: t/th 10:30-12

                       m/w by appointment

Office: C107

Email: laurie.greene@stockton.edu (please put "Anth 2136" in subject line)

This semester we will be exploring the burgeoning field of medical anthropology. Medical anthropology is a new discipline which starts with two insights; 

• first, that cultural premises which are often unconscious or difficult to recognize shape the way that we understand health and healing practices (illness and health are an “imposition of human meanings on naturally occurring processes”), 
• and second, that disease patterns, social norms, and socio-economic arrangements are intrinsically related (social factors determine disease patterns). 

It is part and parcel of medical anthropology that it is applied. Its concerns are not just for an understanding of the concepts and occurrences of health and illness cross culturally, but also in critical efforts that aim to make health and wellbeing available to everyone, not just those who hold power.

In order to understand these concepts we will be looking at the juxtaposition of Western “traditional” medicine and those medical practices which are considered “alternative”. We will explore the effects of globalization on the definition of mental health and mental illness and see how Western, mainly American mental illness is spreading across the globe. We will look at how natural processes are transformed into pathologies as we explore birth in four cultures, And look at the role of the medical anthropologist as activist through a moving biography on the life and work of Paul Farmer.

ETHNOGRAPHIC FIELDWORK: "LGBTQ Youth Health & Wellbeing"

"We have to design a health delivery system by actually talking to people and asking, 'What would make this service better for you?' As soon as you start asking, you get a flood of answers." Paul Farmer

"Anthropology, Activism and Inequality"--Anthropology in general, and medical anthropology in particular has an activist agenda. Anthropologists have an ethical obligation to those who they study and in medical anthropology this has been translated to "health equity"-the rights of all individuals everywhere to live healthy and fulfilling lives free from violence, be it physical or "structural". The greatest proponent of this position has been medical anthropologist/doctor Paul Farmer. In his ground-breaking works (Infectious Inequalities, Pathologies of Power, AIDS and Accusation), Farmer describes illness as a disease of poverty, and implements models for alleviating disease and suffering in the poorest place in the world.

Our anthropological experiences this semester will focus on "infectious inequalities" within our communities by understanding the "cultural underpinnings" surrounding health and wellbeing inequality in the LGBTQ youth community. This ethnographic "fieldwork" will contribute to finding "local solutions" for these problems as a foundation for a proposed LGBTQ youth Safe Space. This fieldwork will work to collect ethnographic interviews within the LGBTQ community locally and with the institutions which currently provide them services. Through an analysis of these ethnographic interviews we will outline challenges, needs and provide potential solutions to limited access to adequate healthcare for LGBTQ youth.

Texts:

(1) Exploring Medical Anthropology (Joralemon)-prentice hall (3rd edition)

(2) Anthropology of Alternative Medicine (Ross)-Bloomsbury Academic-excerpts

(3) Crazy Like Us (Ethan Watters) -Simon & Schutster

(4) Birth in Four Cultures (Jordon)-Waveland Press

(5) Mountains Upon Mountains (Kidder)-Random House

(6) LGBTQ Health Issues, Excerpts
                Overview of Issues & Research
                 Healthcare Preferences of LGBTQ Youth
                 Family Acceptance for LGBTQ Youth
                 Emory Google Survey
                 Beyond Family Rejection

Syllabus and Reading List 

• Week 1: January 17 “What’s so Cultural About Disease?”
• Readings: Joraleson, Exploring Medical Anthropology, Chapter 1
• January 19 “Epidemics, Plagues and Anthropological Analysis”
• Readings: Joraleson, Exploring Medical Anthropology, Chapters 2
• Week 2: January 24-26 , “Healers and Healing Professions”
• Readings: Joraleson, Exploring Medical Anthropology, Chapter 6
• Research Reports#1: Preliminaries (1/26)
• Week 3: January 31-February 2 “What’s the Alternative? Options and Perspectives”
• Readings: Ross, The Anthropology of Alternative Medicine, excerpts

 DUE: "Alternative Medicine: Home Remedies"-Project due FEBRUARY 2

• Week 4: February 7-9
• Readings: Health & LGBTQ Youth (see blog post)
• Research reports #2: Research Sites
• Week 5: February 14-16 “Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of Mental Illness”
• Readings: Watters, Crazy Like Us, Chapter Introduction-Chapter 1- ANOREXIA
• Watters, Crazy Like Us, Chapter Introduction-Chapter 2-PTSD
• Week 6: February 21-23 “Making SCHIZOPHRENIA & Marketing DEPRESSION”
• Readings: Watters: Crazy Like Us, Chapter Introduction-Chapter 3-Conclusion
• Research Reports #3: Google Survey Reports
• Week 7: February 28-March 2 “Its Only Natural: Pregnancy and Childbirth”
• Readings: Jordon, Birth in Four Cultures, Chapters 1-3

  DUE: "Ethnic Psychosis"-Essay on mental Illness-Essay, Due on MARCH 2

• Week 8: March 7-9: Ethnographic Interviews (project summaries to date)
      Research reports #4: "Ethnographic Outtakes"

• SPRING BREAK MARCH 12-20, no classes held

• Week 9: March 21-23“Its Only Natural: Pregnancy and Childbirth”
• Readings: (Film) The Economics of Childbirth
  Readings: Jordon, Birth in Four Cultures, Chapters 1-8Infant mortality & morbidity rates, maternal mortality rates, costs, access

• Week 10: March 30 “Applying Anthropology"
• Readings: Joraleson, Exploring Medical Anthropology, Chapter 7
• Research Reports#5: Final Google Survey (& Schedule)

No Class MARCH 28, Preceptorial Advising

     DUE: Birth Stories: Lifehistory and the Experience of Pain, Due on MARCH 30

    Week 11: April 4-6 “The Ethics of Healing and Biotechnology”
              Readings: Joraleson, Exploring Medical Anthropology, Chapters 8-1

    Week 12: April 11-13 “Paul Farmer and Critical Anthropology”           Readings: Kidder: Mountains Upon Mountains
                Research Reports: Results of Google Survey

    Week 13: April 18-20: Excerpts from Paul Farmer (AIDS, Inequality, Illness)

    Week 14: April 25-27 Cultural Perspectives on Health and Illness

                    Wrap-up on Anthropology & Activism

• GROUP  PRESENTATIONS, Tuesday, May 2

DUE: GROUP REPORTS (no class meeting) Thursday, May 4

^Grading:

1. 4 Projects/Essays -50%
2. Ethnography/Presentations -20%
3. Ethnography Papers-20%
4. Class Preparation/Quizzes (readings) -10%