Comparative Healing Systems

This course is designed to compare and contrast different forms of healing with a specific interest in Western and non-Western healing practices common in Latin America, and more specifically, Argentina. This course also provides an introduction to medical anthropology, an important subfield of anthropology and social science and health studies. Medical anthropology brings social and cultural perspectives to the exploration of health and illness experiences, healer-patient interactions, healing traditions and therapeutic practices, and the political economy of health and healthcare across different cultures throughout the world. Central issues explored in the course include the influence of culture on people's views and experiences of health and illness, how sociocultural factors involved in healer-patient interactions can affect treatment, the cultural assumptions underlying various healing traditions and therapeutic practices, and the ways in which politics and economics can affect people's access to health and healthcare.