Medical Anthropology: Culture and Health

ASB 462

Study Abroad in New Zealand Version

Course Description and Goals

This three credit, senior level course is concerned with the links between culture and health. We will use both ethnographic and comparative approaches to consider how culture structures health and health care including considering how the New Zealand case helps us better understand the US one.

Required Text

MacPherson, C, and L MacPherson. 2007. Samoan Medical Belief and Practice.University of Hawaii Press.

Also please familiarize yourself with:

Coursework and Grades Assessment

Final grades for the course will be assigned on basis of the following:

Ethnographic Analysis: 35 percent

Synthesis and Reflection Statements: 30 percent (15 percent each)

Final exam: 35 percent.

Ethnographic Analysis: Each student must complete at least 2 hours of sustained observation in a public health setting, e.g., hospital waiting room, clinic, etc. Keep careful notes of everything you observe and notice.Once you have finished watching carefully, try to make conversation with some of those using the services. Based on both sets of evidence, consider: How is the experience of those accessing the public health system in New Zealand different from those in the US? (consider such issues as ethnicity, access, who is using facilities, and how they feel about them). Expected length of report: 4-5 pages (do not submit your field notes!).

Synthesis and Reflection Statements: These will integrate field learning, lectures, readings, and personal experience.

1. How does your reading of Samoan Medicinal Belief and Practiceand your field observations affect your understanding(s) of the contrast between Pacific and other modes and views of healing including your own, and how does it provide insights to broader cultural issues in health care and delivery?

2. How can both the identification of the problems and the proposed solution to Maori health disparities in New Zealand be applied to address better similar issues in the US?

Final Exam. The final exam requires you to use the skills developed in this course, particularly those related to explicating the links between culture and health to (a) identify and (b) propose a solution to a health problem within a specific group or community. Grades will be assessed in the largest part based on how well you integrate learning from the class into your design. The choice of your target group, approach, and form of your solution is your own decision, but you must check your plans in skeleton form with the instructor. The definition of the problem must be justified, and this would normally be done from internet sources, readings, or your own observation (or perhaps better still a combination thereof).

Final grades are assessed as:

A89.5-100

B79.5-89.4

C69.5-79.4

D49.5-69.4

Fail<49.5

There is no grading ‘on the curve.’ If you get at total score of 89.5/100 or above for the whole semester, you are guaranteed to get an A for the course. And, if everyone in the class gets over 90 points total in the semester, everyone will get an A and we will be delighted.

Classroom Policies

Academic Honesty:

Students are responsible for their own academic behavior, and for making themselves fully aware of the University’s policies: Academic dishonesty includes using the uncredited work of others, but also tolerating or assisting dishonesty in others.

This syllabus is a general guide only – deviations may occur and should be expected.