Lecture 23



Dr. Erin Moore Department of Anthropology

Spring 2021, University of Southern California

epm@usc.edu

ZOOM link: find under Blackboard left column once in Anthro. 101

Syllabus Anthropology 101g, GE credit (10601R) DRAFT (1/19/21)

Body, Mind and Healing: Introduction to Medical Anthropology

(DAILY Homework is on page 5)

“Before you judge you need to understand.” Anthropology is the study of what it means to be human across time and species. Anthropologists study social-cultural, biological and historical perspectives. This course introduces students to medical anthropology from a cultural perspective. This is not a class for healing ourselves but about the anthropology of healing and how different cultures interpret the body, illness and healing in a surprising variety of ways.

1. Medical Anthropology is one of the newer subfields of Anthropology. The class begins by looking at the role of the medical anthropologists in a variety of cultures: Fresno California, New Guinea, Cuba, Russia and the Caribbean. In these studies, we look at the multidisciplinary teams of medical anthropologists, biomedical practitioners, research scientists and patients working together. Underlying this material are questions about the politics and economics of health care. According to the Harvard M.D. and Anthropologist, Paul Farmer, who gets sick and why they are sick is less about pathogens and more about the roles of global economies and the “structural violence” suffered by the poor.

2. People everywhere get sick and all societies have developed practices, technologies and medicines to treat illness. However, not all peoples understand sickness, healing, or even what it means to have a body in the same way. In our second unit, after the midterm, we look at ethnomedicine and non-biomedical healers. What kinds of healing rituals have been developed and what gives them their power? We will discuss shamans, possessions, placebo, nocebo, acupuncture, religious healers, and biomedical doctors.

3. In the last unit we return to the power of the state and health care both at home and abroad. We discuss the question: should there be a human right to medical treatment

through an examination of Pandemics, Covid-19, and BIPOC populations. Why does the U.S. have some of the highest numbers of Covid-19? Can we trust the state when it comes to testing, swabs and vaccines?

Student Learning Objectives:

1. Apply anthropological concepts, theories and methodologies to your own and others’ lives.

2. Demonstrate engagement with the course materials and your classmates.

3. Analyze scholarly materials in medical anthropology.

4. Create original data based on ethnographic research collected on non-biomedical healers through participant observation and interviews. Or, during Covid, research library sources.

5. Write a research paper that analyzes and evaluates your ethnographic data with comparative analysis to our course materials.

6. Explain and evaluate Paul Farmer’s arguments in collaborative Power Point presentations. 

7. Explain and evaluate your own research findings to the class in a Power Point presentation. 

Texts:

1. Lindenbaum, S., Kuru Sorcery: Disease and Danger in the New Guinea Highlands. 2nd Edition, Paradigm, London 2013.

Full book is online at USC libraries

(you might find a more convenient link).

2. Farmer, Paul, Pathologies of Power, University of California Press. 2005,

Direct link to the eBook on JSTOR:

; I also have a PDF of it.

Additional readings on-line: Sometimes readings are at both places.

1. Ares e-reserves: Learn the Ares system ahead of time. Google: Ares Reserves USC.

2. Blackboard Scans (posted on Blackboard under assignments).

Course Requirements:

Participation 10% (plus 5% on the Paul Farmer presentations)

Written Reflections 15%

1 Experiential Paper 15%, (plus 5% Power Point presentation)

2 Exams 20%, 20% (2 Quizzes 2/17 and 3/29, 10% total)

1. Class Participation (10%)

a. This class is a combination of seminar and lecture. Come prepared to class and bring your experiences to the materials. We all learn from each other. You will be asked to share your written reflections.

Please do not come in late. No food or chewing gum in the class. If this is a problem, see me early in the semester.

Grading is based on your engaged discussion in each class, work sheets and collaborative evaluative projects.

2. Written Reflections: (15%)

Grading: All students must write approx. 400-word response on the readings assigned for each class. Writing should be on all the materials assigned for the next class. Thoughtful responses are descriptive, comparative and critical/evaluative. Write your own thoughts, experiences and connections with the readings. Cite page numbers. These are not graded individually but are recorded as adequate or not. I will notify you if it is not adequate. This may not be turned in LATE. Remember, even if you can’t attend the class, you can e-mail the comment to me on time.

The final grade is the percentage of adequate responses over the total number due.

NOTE: E-mail to: epm@usc.edu, WRITE 101 in the subj. line.

Please PASTE it into the email. Send by 8 pm the day before the class in which we will discuss the material. Please mail early (weekend before) if you can.

3. Comprehension Exams (20%, 20%) This will be a combination of map, short answers and essays. There are no phones or bathroom trips allowed during the exams.

How do I study? Review the slides on blackboard under assignments, your notes on class and films. Answer the study questions that I give to you on your own. Then study group with other students. If you need to make up the final for an officially recognized reason, the exam will be different and may be all essay.

The goal of the exam: to test not only your knowledge of the cultures (compare and contrast) that we studied and where they are located geographically (map) but also your ability to apply anthropological concepts to new situations.

Two quizzes, 6-8 short answers to educate you on my exam style.

4. Experiential Paper (15%) and class presentation on paper (5%)

Traditional Healing Practices of Ethnic Communities

Plagiarism: “Using an essay, term paper or project in more than one course without permission of the instructors of the courses.”

The paper will mold to the pandemic requirements. But you have some choices.

Maybe you have a healer in your family? Or you can do library research. We will work together to make this happen.

Choice A. Interview a Healer (Thru Zoom, Phone, In Person): The healer must work outside Western medicine (not psychotherapy or massage). You must have a new experience and NOT write something from an earlier visit (you can revisit the site though). Find out about a particular healing event, a story told by the healer of a particular patient or healing session that stands out as particularly successful, difficult, or memorable. Include some brief background information on this particular healing tradition.

What is this healer's education, licensing, fees, and clientele? Why do they do this healing? What do the symbols in the healing locale mean?

What does this healing say about conceptions of the body?

See the more detailed instructions on Blackboard assignments.

AND

if at all possible, can you watch a healing session. (Over zoom or in person by a neighbor or friend)

OR: Choice B. Research on-line a healing tradition.

Research three cultures. You may use the HRAF (Human Relations Area Files)

General Introductory info on all cultures was derived and researched from the Online Human Relations Area Files (eHRAF)



or

the Shoah archives at USC to look at healing in a situation of genocide. Look to the transcripts of the interviews for healing ideas. Keep in mind structural violence too.

I will get back to you about this project. You may want to get a librarian to help you with these archives.

3. Grading: All deadlines are met: topic, outline, and paper due time.

Type an 8-10-page double-spaced paper, Times New Roman 12 pt., 1 in margins. (It may not be longer). Pls. have a separate cover page with your name and contact info. (This is not one of your 10 pages).

a.) Begin with a hook, a good quote or an interesting anecdote you learned. Introduction should immediately foreground your interview with your healer and the type of healing. Less than one page.

b.) Describe your research (who, where, how, technological devices, what was said, quotes, cultures and locations) AND

c.) Relate (throughout the text) your own research to the class readings and cite them for example (Moore 2016: 44) means that the author Moore wrote in 2016 on page 44, – no need for bibliography or footnotes. Cite a variety of our readings, at least 3 per page (from whole course). Be careful about repetitions of the same author. Do not cite films, Power Points or lectures. Embed the cites by explaining why this cite is used at this location in your paper; why is it relevant.

There will be a list of required topics to cover with your healer on Blackboard under assignments.

Paper Due Dates:

1. March 29, Topic, type a paragraph (who, what, when, where, why and bring it to me in class;

2. April 14, OUTLINE OF PAPER DUE, 2 pages, outline format with thesis. Topic sentences and how this healing relates to our class.

3. April 21, Paper due, 8:30 AM, Email the paper to me as a non-PDF Word document.

After this time, it is late and loses 1 grade per day (first day late is after start of class on this day). After 6 days the grade is a ZERO.

Get started thinking about topic possibilities today. Ask friends and relatives for ideas (mothers, aunties); go to ethnic neighborhoods, the internet, religious sites, and come ask me ... I have a folder of places.

Begin NOW, people flake out on you or you might discover that the healer is too expensive.

Power Point Presentations: You have two opportunities to present to the class.

1. When we read Paul Farmer, I will divide you in teams to present his work.

2. Present your original research to the class. I would like you to brief the class about the healer that you met or the research that you did. Describe the healing and then offer accurate, interesting comparisons and contrasts to our cultures from class.

Grading for an A Power Point: the speaker speaks loudly enough for the class, speaks directly to the class, may reference some notes, and has photos and a map to make the presentation interesting. Limit the text on each slide (5 slides with 6 lines). You may say more than is written on the slide. Don’t speak too fast. No cites required. Focus on interesting points. You do not have to cover your whole research. Make your presentation exciting. Do a short demonstration or bring a video clip you took. Only five minutes, well timed. Do not use distracting dancing icons. ___________________________________________________________________________

Classroom Work and Assignments.

Zoom rules:

Camera on, Proper class attire and posture, mic off initially, proper lighting so we can see your face, computer (not phone), not walking around. (Pls notify me if you need an exception and we can talk).

1/20 Organizational meeting, Introductions, What is Medical Anthropology? Baseline survey. Remember, your first response is due day before next class, Sunday night for 1/25. Just one response for all the readings, pasted in the email.

Unit 1. The Field of Medical Anthropology: Seeing Healing from a Different Perspective and Anthropologists at WORK

1/25 Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: TWO CHAPTERS (write on all, 400 wds. total)

Ares reserve or at this link Ch. 1 “Birth,” 3-11; Link:

Ares reserve Ch. 3 “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” 20-31.

Have you ever been sick in a foreign country? Have you had to translate for a family member in a medical setting?

Film Clips in class: The Hmong Shaman in America,

1/27 Applying Medical Anthropology: Two articles: write on all

1. BB:(from The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, pgs. 32-37 Ch. 4 “Do Dr. Eat Brains?” and Ch. 5 “Take as Directed” pg. 38-59. (Think about the power of the state).

2. BB The Hot and Cold Theory of Disease, pgs. 251- 257. (Think about the power of the biomedical community). (33 pages total)

2/1 Salvage Anthropology, Preserving and Translating Cultures: Asynchronous class: Fill out the question sheet that I post on Blackboard while you watch the film (link below) on your own or with buddies from class and email the response to me by midnight today.

What is the Role of the Medical Anthropologist? “Healthy People, Beautiful Life” 46:43, Belize.

_________________________________

Classic Study of Kuru: Multidisciplinary teams of anthropologist, biomedical doctors, research scientists and Nobel Laureates.

2/3 Day 1 NEW GUINEA, KURU SORCERY (book is online, )

What is the work of the medical anthropologist in this case of a deadly disease on young women? Ch. 1 "Introduction" pgs. 3-8 (page numbers are from my book) and Ch. 2 "Kuru and Sorcery" pgs. 9-30, AND Ch. 5 "Etiology and World View" pgs. 55-59 (omit the disease tables) and Ch. 5 cont. 64-73. (43 pages of reading)

(Feb. 4, 2 pm there is a guest lecture in another class that we might be able to watch, extra credit?

 

 

2/8 DAY 2 Kuru Sorcery

a. Reading Kuru Ch. 6 "Ideology in Transition" and Ch. 7 "The Crisis Years," 74-99 response due at the normal time/ 2/7 8 pm. Think about the Fore explanatory model of the disease, their divination, prevention and cures. (25 pages)

b. CLASS period: Asynchronous class? Due by midnight tonight. Watch: “Kuru: Science and Sorcery” Film by Alpers, 52 min., 2010. Link is accessible thru Ares. Answer worksheet posted on BB.

2/10 DAY 3 Kuru Sorcery Ch. 8 "The Kibungs" pg. 100- 116 (Sorcery is the dark side of the healing shaman), AND Ch. 9 "Status and the Sorcerer" pgs. 117-127, What is a Kibung? Do you have anything like that in your culture? Were they successful?

2/15 President's Day Holiday

2/17 Day 4 Kuru Sorcery,

Ch. 10 "Polluters, Witches and Sorcerers" pgs. 128-137 (Stop at the Geography of Fear),

Ch. 13 "The End of Kuru" 173-192 AND Epilogue pg. 193-194. If your edition does not have Ch. 13, it is on Ares Reserves. But it is in the online version.

Graded Quiz in Class. (up through today's readings)

___________________________________________________________

Biomedicine Abroad: Your turn to do POWER POINTS

Health and Human Rights: Paul Farmer (Uber Famous Harvard MD, Ph.D. in Anthropology)

2/22 DAY 1 Structural Violence, Global Health and Politics

1. Pathologies of Power, Introduction: pg. 1-20, general overview. (copy online, )

2. Ares Reserve (better than BB). Seth Holmes, “Oaxacans Like to Work Bent Over:” The Naturalization of Social Suffering among Berry Farm Workers. In Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology, 3rd Edition. 2016, Peter Brown and Svea Closser, eds., pgs. 140-154. (34 pages total)

In class: What is Farmer’s thesis? Holm's thesis? Structural violence means the unfair ways a society is organized. Comments on your PowerPoint for next class: Well timed, not too much text, map and good visuals.

2/24 DAY 2 Power Point Presentation about 20 minutes per group by students. Responses due on readings from all students for the materials you are not presenting.

Ch. 1 Haiti: Bearing Witness: page 29-50, (21)

Ch. 2 and Ch. 3 Pestilence and Restraint: Guantanamo, Aids and the Logic of Quarantine, pg. 51-90. (39)

3/1 DAY 3 Paul Farmer PP cont. Write on all parts that you are not presenting on.

1. Ch. 5: Health, Healing and Social Justice pg. 139-159. (20)

2. Ch. 6 Listening for Prophetic Voices, A Critique of Market-Based Medicine. pg. 160-178, (18)

3/3 Day 4 Paul Farmer Cont. Write on all parts that you are not presenting on.

Ch. 7 Cruel and Unusual: Drug Resistant TB as Punishment. pg. 179- 195. (16)

See:

See on Blackboard: 1/14/21 was a recorded lecture on "Behind Bars: Life and Death for Inmates in the Time of Covid -19." ??

Exam review.

3/8 MIDTERM EXAM, on-line, open book. You may begin 10 minutes early if that is available to all class members. I will sign on for questions 15 min. early regardless.

__________________________________________________________________

Unit 2 Ethnomedicine and Healers: The Performance of Healing: Sickness and Healing in Cross-Cultural Perspective. RITUALS COUNT

3/10 Healing Shamans: Introduction to Shamanism: Native American and Southern Africa

1. Ares Reserve: Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology, "Introduction: Conceptual Tools" (stop before you read, The Dark Side of the Shaman) pg. 169 only.

2. Blackboard Scan under assignments: Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology, #14, The Sorcerer and His Magic pgs. 129-137, Levi-Strauss, read slowly, this is our theoretical framework.

3. Ares Reserve: Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology Ch. 19 "Beyond the Doctor's White Coat: Science, Ritual and Healing in American Biomedicine." 204-212. (19 pages total).

Paper Topic due today: type a paragraph (who – IN PERSON/ or Zoom, what, when, where, why and email it to me by 8:30 am Ca. Time).

3/15 Blackboard Scan under assignments: Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology, #13, Transcendental Medication pg. 111-114.

We will see a film on healers among the !Kung San (N!um Tchai).

3/17 The Shaman’s Power: Nocebo Affect.

1. Ares Reserve, Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology, "Healers in Cross-Cultural Perspective, The Dark Side of the Shaman." pgs. 170-173 (now read the Dark Side, this refers to sorcerers).

2. Blackboard Scans under Assignments: Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology, Ch. 15 "The Nocebo Phenomenon: Concept, Evidence, and Implications for Public Health." pgs. 138-142. How do you do nocebo? What are the different kinds discussed in this article?

3. Watch, Nocebo: , 6.47 min.

In class: Magical Death, Yanomamo. , 29 min.

3/22 Religion and Healing: Korea,

Becoming a Healer: It is not easy (Born/Genetic and Learned/Culture),

Ares Reserve: The Performance of Healing, “Initiating Performance, The Story of Chini, a Korean Shaman.” by Laurel Kendall.

Short film on Chini, , 35 min. Question Sheet.

3/24 Acupuncture in China

1. Do the reading responses for the reading, due 3/23, 8 pm or before (normal time).

Ares Reserves: Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, “Oriental Medicine: An Introduction” Ehling, Dagmar. Pgs. 71-82

Ares Reserve: Trick or Treatment, “The Placebo Effect. The Truth About Acupuncture” pg. 55-88, Singh, Simon and Edzand Ernest (44 pages total)

2. Asynchronous class: Bill Moyers: Film on Medicine in China

, 60 minutes. Question sheet due at midnight.

______________________________________________________________________

UNIT 3: Avian Flu and Anthropologists, Pandemics, COVID-19

3/29 Ares Reserve: Barack Obama, A Promised Land (2020), Ch. 16, on Universal Health Care and the "Swine Flu," H1N1, in Mexico 2009, pgs. 375-387.

1. Ares Reserve: Kleinman, Arthur, et. al, "Asian flus in ethnographic and political context: A biosocial approach" Anthropology and Medicine 15 (1) April 2008, 1-5

2. Ares reserve: Briggs, Charles L. and Nichter, Mark, "Biocommunicability and the Biopolitics of Pandemic Threats." Medical Anthropology 2009, pg. 189-198. (26 pages)

Graded Quiz in Class, up thru today.

Topic of paper due.

3/31 Covid-19 and the BIPOC/BAME (UK - Black, Asian, Minority, Ethnic) Communities.

1. 1619 Podcast episode 4, , 40 minutes.

2. Ares Reserve: Medical Anthropology Quarterly, Yesmar Oyarzun, "Plantation Politics, Paranoia, and Public Health on the Frontlines of America's Covid-19 Response." pg. 1-13, 2020 Who can you trust?

4/5 Covid-19 Abroad

1. Ares Reserve, Feminist Studies, Baviskar, Amita and Raka Ray, "Covid-19 at Home: Gender, Class and the Domestic Economy in India" pgs. 561-571, 2020

2. Ares Reserve, Feminist Studies, Elora Halim Chowdhury, "The Precarity of Preexisting Conditions." pgs. 615-625. 2020, Bangladesh garment factories (20 pages)

4/7 Wellness Day

4/12

1. Ares Reserve: Feminist Studies, Erica S. Lawson, et. al., "The Intensification of Liberian Women's Social Reproductive Labor in the Coronavirus Pandemic: Regenerative Possibilities." pg. 674-683, 2020.

2. Ares Reserve: Feminist Studies, Shaneda Destine et. al., "Black Maternal Health Crisis, Covid-19, and the Crisis of Care." pgs. 603-614. (USA) 2020.

4/14 Distrust of the Biomedical System Engendered:

1. Ares Reserves: Dorothy Roberts, Killing the Black Body, Ch.2 "The Dark Side of Birth Control." pgs. 56-103, (skim 79-89 if it is too much). 2 classes?

See:

In Class Film: No Mas Bebes.

4/19 Right to Health Care: Asynchronous Class, , 2 hr., answer question sheet due at midnight today.

4/21-26 Student PowerPoints

Paper Due April 21, Email NON-pdf by midnight tonight.

4/28 Exam Review

May 10, 11-1 Second Midterm

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