Medicine, Body, and Culture

MEDICINE, BODY, AND CULTURE ANTH 127A Fall Semester 2016

Instructor: Dr. Anita Hannig Email: [email protected] Course Hours: Tues & Fri, 12:30-1:50pm Course Location: Gerstenzang 124 Office Hours: Tues 2:00-4:00pm (or by appoint.) Office: Brown 209

Teaching Assistant: Steven Gonzalez Email: [email protected] Office Hours: Tues 10:45-11:45am (or by appoint.) Office: Rabb 326

COURSE DESCRIPTION This course is an introduction to critical areas of inquiry in medical anthropology. By examining the socio-cultural dimensions of sickness and healing cross-culturally, we will explore how anthropologists have approached historical and contemporary problems in the global field of medicine. Topics of the course include the production of medical knowledge and belief; the political, economic, and religious dimensions of suffering and illness; and patients and healers in comparative medical systems. While our course trajectory will lead us to treat Western medicine (or biomedicine) as only one among many systems of meaning and authority, we will also spend some time deconstructing the often unspoken assumptions that govern biomedicine, thereby complicating the notion that the latter is somehow insulated from the reach of culture.

READINGS The following readings are required texts available for purchase at the Brandeis University bookstore or another provider of your choice. All other readings will be available on LATTE.

. Kuriyama, Shigehisa. 2002. The Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine. New York: Zone Books. . Street, Alice. 2014. Biomedicine in an Unstable Place: Infrastructure and Personhood in a Papua New Guinean Hospital. Durham: Duke University Press. . Lock, Margaret. 2002. Twice Dead: Organ Transplants and the Reinvention of Death. Berkeley: University of California Press. . Garcia, Angela. 2010. The Pastoral Clinic: Addiction and Possession along the Rio Grande. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Success in this four-credit course is based on the expectation that students will spend a minimum of 9 hours of study time per week in preparation for class. Readings range between 100-140 pages per week.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS & EVALUATION I. Class Participation (20%) This course will be run as a discussion-based seminar, which means that it relies strongly on your informed and active participation, which, in turn, hinges on your completion of the readings prior to each class. We will engage in lots of group work, exercises in pairs, and in-class debates to work through the readings together. If you don’t do the readings, you not only risk shortchanging yourself but also your classmates. In trying to create an academically productive

1 space where everyone feels comfortable speaking up, I will encourage you to listen and respond to each other carefully and with generosity. During class, I will assess the quality of your contributions over their quantity. If you are speaking more than two or three times in a given class session, please hold back to give others room to speak. As we are learning to critically engage these texts together, I expect each of you to come to class having read and thought about the assigned readings and to be able to make a meaningful contribution to our collective conversation. I will sometimes call on students to elicit a variety of viewpoints. Please bring hard copies of the assigned readings with you to class (unless you are using a tablet).

II. Reflections (25%) Over the course of the semester, you will submit five separate reading reflections on the four major books assigned during the semester plus one additional reading early on (due on September 6th). Each response should be 350 words or less; we will discuss the expectations for these reflections in class. The reflections will give you the chance to process the reading more deeply than you might otherwise and will allow us to see what larger points you are taking away. The assignments will be graded on a check plus, check, and check minus scale. They are due on LATTE at 9 am the morning of class. If you post them later than that, your grade will be reduced by one point (for instance, from a check to a check minus). For the book reflections, you are free to decide for which day of the book discussions you would like to submit a reflection (please check the calendar carefully), as long as the reflection deals explicitly with the chapters assigned for the class that day.

III. Essay Assignments (55%) In part, this course is designed to develop your skills in critical thinking, analysis, and writing. Over the course of the semester, you will write 2 concise essays in response to a selection of prompts. The midterm essay will be 5 double-spaced pages long and count as 25% of your grade. If your grade is lower than or equal to a B–, you will have the chance to rewrite the midterm and move up a third of a letter grade. The final essay will be 6-7 double-spaced pages and count as 30% of your grade. All essays must be submitted on the dates and times indicated on the schedule below. If you submit your paper late, we will deduct a third of a letter grade for every day (or fraction of a day) past the deadline. I will only grant an extension for a paper under extraordinary circumstances and if you have approached me at least 24 hours before the due date. PS: The writing center is a great on-campus resource to help you hone your writing skills.

GRADUATE STUDENTS Graduate students will complete the five reflections as well as the midterm. For the final paper, graduate students will submit an original research paper of 11-12 double-spaced pages on a topic of their choice. Abstracts for the paper are due by November 1.

ATTENDANCE In order to succeed in the course, your timely presence in the classroom is obligatory. If you are consistently late, your participation grade will take a toll. If, for any reason, you are unable to attend class on a given day, please contact the TA assigned to you in advance to request an excused absence (otherwise your absence will count as unexcused). Two or more unexcused absences per semester will lower your participation grade by one third of a letter grade. Four or more unexcused absences will lower your participation grade by two thirds of a letter grade.

2 COMPUTER AND CELL PHONE USE In order to focus your full attention on the class and on each other, laptops are not allowed durin g class time. Flat tablets (such as Ipads) are an exception, but may be used only to pull up the rea dings and not for typing. The use of cell phones is of course prohibited.

DISABILITIES If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University and wish to ha ve a reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please come and see me.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY In all of your written assignments, please make sure to cite properly any sources that you consulted, whether or not you use direct quotes. You may not simply lift text from any source and incorporate it into your own work, nor can you just change a few words here and there and claim it as your own, even if you do cite the source. You must thoroughly and carefully paraphrase any information that you include. We will go over proper citation style in class.

You are expected to be familiar with and to follow the University’s policies on academic integrity and plagiarism (see http://www.brandeis.edu/studentlife/sdc/ai). Faculty may refer any suspected instances of alleged dishonesty to the Office of Student Development and Conduct. Instances of academic dishonesty may result in sanctions, including but not limited to failing grades being issued, educational programs, and other consequences.

3 SCHEDULE OF READINGS

Medical Anthropology, Belief, and the “Real” Week One 8/26 (Fri) Introduction to the course

Week Two 8/30 (Tues) Evans-Pritchard, E. E. 1976. Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande. [1-64] ***LATTE***

9/2 (Fri) Evans-Pritchard, E. E. 1976. “Magic and Medicines.” Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande. Oxford: Clarendon Press. [176-204] ***LATTE***

Good, Byron. 1994. “Medical Anthropology and the Problem of Belief.” In Medicine, Rationality, and Experience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [1-24] ***LATTE***

Week Three 9/6 (Tues) Pigg, Stacy Leigh. 1996. “The Credible and the Credulous: The Question of “Villagers’ Beliefs” in Nepal.” Cultural Anthropology 11(2):160-201. ***LATTE***

***First reading reflection due at 9am (9/6)***

9/9 (Fri) Weiss, Brad. 1996. “Plastic Teeth Extraction.” In The Making and Unmaking of the Haya Lived World. [155-178] ***LATTE***

Langwick, Stacey. 2007. “Devils, Parasites, and Fierce Needles: Healing and the Politics of Translation in Southern Tanzania.” Science, Technology & Human Values 32(1):88-117. ***LATTE***

Medical Knowledge and Training in Comparative Perspective Week Four 9/13 (Tues) Kuriyama, Shigehisa. 2002. The Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine. Preface [7-14] & Chapter 1 [17-60].

9/16 (Fri) Kuriyama, Shigehisa. 2002. The Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine. Chapter 3 [111-151].

Class visit by Dr. Zhenzhen Zhang, acupuncturist at Gold Living Acupuncture

Week Five 9/20 (Tues) Kuriyama, Shigehisa. 2002. The Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine. Chapter 5 [195-231]; Chapter 6 [233-270]; Epilogue [271-272].

4 9/23 (Fri) Good, Byron and Mary-Jo Good. 1993. “‘Learning Medicine’: The Constructing of Medical Knowledge at Harvard Medical School.” [81-107] ***LATTE***

Segal, Daniel. 1988. “A Patient so Dead: American Medical Students and their Cadavers.” Anthropological Quarterly 61(1):17–25. ***LATTE***

Biomedicine in a Global Context Week Six 9/27 (Tues) Anderson, Warwick. 2000. “The Possession of Kuru: Medical Science and Biocolonial Exchange.” Comparative Studies in Society and History. 42:713-744. ***LATTE***

Anderson, Warwick. 2009. “Modern Sentinel and Colonial Microcosm: Science, Discipline, and Distress at the Philippine General Hospital.” Philippine Studies 57 (2):153-177. ***LATTE***

9/30 (Fri) Street, Alice. 2014. Biomedicine in an Unstable Place: Infrastructure and Personhood in a Papua New Guinean Hospital. Prologue [1-7]; Chapter 1 [11- 38]; Chapter 2 [39-58].

Week Seven 10/4 (Tues) No class

10/7 (Fri) Street, Alice. 2014. Biomedicine in an Unstable Place: Infrastructure and Personhood in a Papua New Guinean Hospital. Chapter 4 [89-114]; Chapter 5 [115-142].

Foucault, Michel. 1994. The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception. Translated by A. M. Sheridan Smith. New York: Vintage Books. Preface [ix-xix]; Conclusion [195-199]. ***LATTE***

Week Eight 10/11 (Tues) Street, Alice. 2014. Biomedicine in an Unstable Place: Infrastructure and Personhood in a Papua New Guinean Hospital. Chapter 6 [143-166]; Chapter 8 [194-222]; Conclusion [223-235].

*** Midterm prompts handed out ***

10/14 (Fri) Masquelier, Adeline. 2012. “Public Health or Public Threat? Polio Eradication Campaigns, Islamic Revival, and the Materialization of State Power in Niger.” [213-232] ***LATTE***

Scheper-Hughes, Nancy. 1996. “The Theft of Life: The Globalization of Organ- Stealing Rumors.” Anthropology Today 12(3):3-11. ***LATTE***

5 Week Nine 10/18 (Tues) In-class writing mechanics workshop

10/21 (Fri) In-class film: Fire in the Blood

*** Midterm paper due at noon on 10/21 (Fri) ***

Week Ten 10/25 (Tues) No class (Brandeis Monday)

Organ Transplants and the New Death 10/28 (Fri) Lock, Margaret. 2002. Twice Dead. Preamble [1-13]; Stories [14-31]; Chapter 1 [32-53]; Tragedy [127-129]; Memory Work [232-234].

Week Eleven 11/1 (Tues) Lock, Margaret. 2002. Twice Dead. Reanimation [54-56]; Chapter 2 [57-75]; Narrow Escapes [76-77]; Chapter 9 [209-231]; Chapter 11 [263-287].

11/4 (Fri) Lock, Margaret. 2002. Twice Dead. Transcendence through Music [288-290]; A Court Order [310-314]; An Unsatisfactory Intelligence [345-346]; Chapter 14 [347-362].

Kaufman, Sharon. 2000. “In the Shadow of ‘Death with Dignity’: Medicine and Cultural Quandaries of the Vegetative State.” American Anthropologist 102(1):69-83.

Week Twelve 11/8 (Tues) Lock, Margaret. 2002. Twice Dead. Chapter 13 [315-340]; A Reliable Man [341- 344]; Reflections [365-377].

Listen to TAL episode “Lucas and Sarah” http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio- archives/episode/345/ties-that-bind?act=2#play

Structural Violence 11/11 (Fri) Farmer, Paul. 2004. “An Anthropology of Structural Violence.” Current Anthropology 45(3):305-325. ***LATTE***

Bourgois, Philippe. 2010. “Useless Suffering: The War on Homeless Drug Addicts.” In The Insecure American: How We Got Here and What We Should Do About It. Hugh Gusterson and Catherine Besteman, eds. Berkeley: University of California Press. [238-254] ***LATTE***

Listen to Bourgois and Schonberg interview. http://philippebourgois.net/KPFA %202010-07-12%20Righteous_Dopefiends.mp3 ***LATTE***

Week Thirteen

6 11/15 (Tues) Scheper-Hughes, Nancy. 1992. “Nervoso.” In Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil. [167-215] ***LATTE***

Addiction and Dispossession 11/18 (Fri) In-class film: The House I Live In

Week Fourteen 11/22 (Tues) Garcia, Angela. 2010. The Pastoral Clinic. Introduction [1-36]; Graveyard [37- 68].

11/25 (Fri) ***Happy Thanksgiving***

Week Fifteen 11/29 (Tues) Garcia, Angela. 2010. The Pastoral Clinic. The Elegiac Addict [69-110]; Blood Relative [111-149].

*** Final paper prompts handed out ***

12/2 (Fri) Garcia, Angela. 2010. The Pastoral Clinic. Experiments with Care [183-203]; Conclusion [205-210].

Jessica Hoyos, MLADC, visits class

Week Sixteen 12/6 (Tues) Review

*** Final paper due at noon on 12/9 (Friday) ***