Module ANTH1041: Health, Illness and Society

Department: Anthropology

ANTH1041: Health, Illness and Society

Prerequisites

• None.

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To introduce students to the concepts of approaches and methods of medical anthropology, broadly defined, as a multi- and interdisciplinary field.
• To promote the value of a multidisciplinary perspective to the study of health and illness.
• To give an insight into how social, cultural and biological factors interact in the field of health and disease.
• To show the potential for medical anthropology to contribute to health policy and planning in our own and other societies.

Content

• What is health? Lay perspectives on health and well-being
• Disease, illness and sickness
• Mind, body and society
• Cross-cultural perspectives on health, illness and healthcare
• Adaptation, natural selection and health
• Ecological approaches to population health
• Age, gender, ethnicity and socioeconomic inequalities in health and health care
• Health education/promotion
• Community health
• Health and the life course (eg chronic illness)
• Health systems
• Biomedicine as a cultural system
• Medical pluralism - complementary, alternative and traditional medicine
• Healing rituals
• Medicalization
• Drugs and pharmaceuticals
• The role of medicine in the demographic transition
• Health at the global level
• Introduction to research methods in medical anthropology

Learning Outcomes

• Knowledge of the main concepts, approaches and methods used by anthropologists in cross-cultural study of health and ill-health.
• Understand the scope of medical anthropology and its relationship to both social anthropology and biological anthropology as wholes.
• Insight into one or more non-western health world-views.
• Familiarity with the biological, ecological and socio-cultural aspects of health and ill-health across and within societies and individuals.

• Read and understand medical anthropological texts that address practical and theoretical issues.
• Have the opportunity to undertake a written assignment on a health-related topic.
• Develop cross-cultural empathy and understanding in relation to notions of health and illness in different societies.

• Ability to evaluate and synthesize information from a variety of sources (eg written, oral and internet)
• An ability to construct reasoned arguments
• Capacity to conduct a small piece of empirical research
• Ability to frame research issues and problems

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• The module offers a carefully integrated balance of lectures and classes.
• Lectures and classes incorporate a range of different audio-visual delivery mechanisms including powerpoint slides, diagrams and videos appropriate to the materials covered.
• Lectures deliver the bulk of the substantive material for the module. They include summary and revision elements.
• Tutorials enable further discussion and clarification of materials covered in lectures and student presentations.
• The end of the year exam enables students to consolidate their learning. A 'mock exam' will be available on DUO for students to test their knowledge under self-imposed exam conditions.
• The module DUO site serves to ensure that students can find the information about the module they require at any time.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Written and verbal feeback on a written assignment.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University