Summer School

The anthropology course I'll be taking has me doing backflips for summer quarter to hurry up and start: Foothiil's Anth 50:'Medical Anthropology', taught by the same stellar professor as I studied under for 'Peoples of Africa'. Here's the course description:

"This course is an introduction to medical anthropology, the study of health and disease within the context of culture. Students will learn about the various research interests of medical anthropologists through readings, lectures, discussions, assignments, and a term paper. Specific topics will include: medical systems found in different cultures; defining health and disease; defining "normal" and "abnormal;" cultural beliefs and practices regarding the life cycle; cultural beliefs and practices influencing nutrition; the health consequences of cultural contact, development, and particular political, economic, and social systems; Western biomedicine as an ethnomedicine; and finally the meaning and experience of illness including patient-healer interactions."

Superb. And utterly fascinating. Far more thought about medicine than goes into most science-based medical classes, and as an added bonus I knock off another GE credit towards my transfer to nursing school. Brilliant!

Here's the reading list for anyone interested in the subject:

Death Without Weeping by Scheper-Hughes, Nancy.
1992. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN: 9780520075374

Elusive Embryo.by Becker, Gay.
2000. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN: 9780520224310

Endangered Species by Harper, Janice
2002.Carolina Academic Press. ISBN: 0890892385

Medicine and Culture by Payer, Lynn
1996. Owl Books. ISBN: 9780805048030

Pathologies of Power by Farmer, Paul
2003 University of California Press. ISBN: 9780520243269

Culture of Our Discontent by Small, Meredith F.
2006 Joseph Henry Press. ISBN: 9780309100663