Course Syllabus
Titolo
Antropologia medica
Argomenti e articolazione del corso
In questo corso, gli studenti svilupperanno le loro competenze e la loro comprensione critica delle dimensioni sociali, culturali, politiche ed economiche del corpo, della salute e della malattia. In che modo la salute e la malattia sono oggetto d’interpretazione e credenze nelle diverse società? Quali sono i processi che fanno sì che le questioni corporali coinvolgano e plasmino le interazioni sociali e l’organizzazione sociale di individui e gruppi? Per rispondere a tali interrogativi, questo corso si concentra su approcci etnografici a temi riguardanti la salute e la malattia in vari contesti globali. Un tema trasversale che lega gli argomenti del corso è la produzione di sapere antropologico su salute, sofferenza e medicina. Verrà riservata particolare attenzione all’analisi antropologica delle disuguaglianze globali legate al campo della salute, per tentare di capire meglio alcuni dei più complessi contesti e casi contemporanei, attraverso studi etnografici dai cinque continenti.
Obiettivi
Prerequisiti: Conoscenza generale delle principali teorie antropologiche e approcci metodologici. Familiarità con la metodologia etnografica.
Il corso svilupperà principalmente i temi seguenti: - Introduzione all’Antropologia medica: concetti chiave, approcci teorici e metodologici. - Sistemi medici come sistemi culturali. - Salute pubblica e politiche della salute. - Salute, migrazione e umanitarismo. - Sofferenza, violenza e disuguaglianze nella salute. |
Metodologie utilizzate
Nella prima parte del corso, l’insegnamento sarà basato principalmente su lezioni d’introduzione all’Antropologia medica. Nella seconda parte, verranno organizzate presentazioni di articoli (indicati dall’insegnante) da parte degli studenti e discussioni incentrate sui temi del corso, nella forma di seminario. Nella terza e ultima parte del corso, gli studenti discuteranno in aula i risultati del loro lavoro sul campo e alcuni ospiti presenteranno le loro ricerche etnografiche.
Materiali didattici (online, offline)
Programma e bibliografia per i frequentanti
1) A Reader in Medical Anthropology. Theoretical Trajectories, Emergent Realities, edited by Byron J. Good, Michael M.J. Fischer, Sarah S. Willen, e Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good. Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
2) A Companion to Medical Anthropology, edited by Merril Singer and Pamela I. Erickson, Wiley-Blackwell, 2011 .
Programma e bibliografia per i non frequentanti
1) A Reader in Medical Anthropology. Theoretical Trajectories, Emergent Realities, edited by Byron J. Good, Michael M.J. Fischer, Sarah S. Willen, e Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good. Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
2) A Companion to Medical Anthropology, edited by Merril Singer and Pamela I. Erickson, Wiley-Blackwell, 2011 .
Oltre ai due volumi sopracitati, agli studenti non frequentanti è richiesto di concordare il programma con il docente e di scegliere con lui di due volumi aggiuntivi dalla seguente lista:
Biehl João, 2009, Will to Live: AIDS Therapies and the Politics of Survival, Princeton University Press.
CsordasThomas J., 2002, Body/Meaning/Healing, Palgrave.
Farmer Paul, 1992, AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame, University of California Press.
FarmerPaul, 1999, Infections and inequalities. The modern plagues, University of California Press.
FarmerPaul, 2003, Pathologies of power. Health, human rights, and the new war on the poor, University of California Press.
FassinDidier, 2007, When Bodies Remember. Experiences and Politics of AIDS in South Africa, University of California Press.
FassinDidier, 2018, Life. A Critical User’s Manual, Polity Press.
FassinDidier and RechtmanRichard, 2009, The Empire of Trauma. An Inquiry into the Condition of Victimhood,Princeton University Press.
KleinmanArthur, 1995, Writing at the Margin: Discourse Between Anthropology and Medicine, University of California Press.
InhornMarcia C., 2003, Local Babies, Global Science: Gender, Religion, and In Vitro Fertilization in Egypt, Routledge.
LockMargaret and NguyenVinh-Kim, 2010, An Anthropology of Biomedicine, Wiley-Blackwell.
LockMargaret, 2001, Twice Dead: Organ Transplants and the Reinvention of Death, University of California Press.
MartinEmily, 1994, Flexible Bodies. Tracking Immunity in American Culture - From the Days of Polio to the Age of AIDS, Beacon Press.
MattinglyCheryl, 1998, Healing dramas and clinical plots. The narrative structure of experience, Cambridge University Press.
MolAnnemarie, 2003, The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice, Duke University Press.
NguyenVinh-Kim, 2010, The Republic of Therapy: Triage and Sovereignty in West Africa’s Time of AIDS, Duke University Press.
PetrynaAdriana, 2002, Life Exposed: Biological Citizens after Chernobyl, Princeton University Press.
TicktinMiriam, 2011, Casualties of Care. Immigration and the politics of humanitarianism in France, University of California Press.
Modalità d'esame
Agli studenti frequentanti è richiesto di presentare in aula uno o due degli articoli che verranno proposti e di discuterli collettivamente con gli altri partecipanti e con l’insegnante. Tali presentazioni orali costituiranno parte della valutazione finale. |
Orario di ricevimento
Si prega di contattare il docente: lorenzo.alunni@unimib.it
Durata dei programmi
Un anno accademico (2019/2020).
Cultori della materia e Tutor
Course title
Medical Anthropology
Topics and course structure
In this course, students will develop knowledge and critical understanding of social, cultural, political and economical dimensions concerning health and body issues. In what ways are health and illness matters of interpretation and belief in different societies? How do they involve and shape social interactions and social organization among individuals and groups? How do they reflect and influence political and economic relations? To answer such questions, this course focuses on ethnographic approaches on issues regarding health and illness in different contexts worldwide.
One theme that ties together the diverse topics of the course is the production of anthropological knowledge about health, suffering, and medicine. Particular attention will be dedicated to the anthropological analysis ofglobal inequalities linked to the field of health, in order to better understand some of the most complex contemporary contexts and issues across ethnographic cases from the five continents.Objectives
Through the analysis and comparison of ethnographic cases from various settings, students will reach a deeper understanding of medicine and health as systems of thought and practice, as well as exploring the possible ways to study the body as a bio-historical product. Students will learn how to consider health issues as individual forms of embodiment of broader social and historical processes within situated moral worlds.
Prerequisites: General knowledge of the main anthropological theories and methodological approaches. Familiarity with ethnographic fieldwork methodology.
The course will mainly focus on the following themes: - Introduction to Medical Anthropology: Key Concepts, Theoretical and Methodological Approaches. - Medical Systems as Cultural Systems. - Public Health and Health Politics. - Health, Migration, and Humanitarism. - Suffering, Violence and Health Inequalities.
Methodologies
In the first part of the course, teaching will be mainly based on introductory lectures. In the second part, presentations by students and group discussions will be organized around central topics of the course, in the form of a workshop. In the third and final part of the course, students will discuss in the class the results of their short ethnographic work and guest speakers will present their ethnographic researches.
Online and offline teaching materials
Programme and references for attending students
1) A Reader in Medical Anthropology. Theoretical Trajectories, Emergent Realities, edited by Byron J. Good, Michael M.J. Fischer, Sarah S. Willen, e Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good. Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
2) A Companion to Medical Anthropology, edited by Merril Singer and Pamela I. Erickson, Wiley-Blackwell, 2011 .
Programme and references for non-attending students
1) A Reader in Medical Anthropology. Theoretical Trajectories, Emergent Realities, edited by Byron J. Good, Michael M.J. Fischer, Sarah S. Willen, e Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good. Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
2) A Companion to Medical Anthropology, edited by Merril Singer and Pamela I. Erickson, Wiley-Blackwell, 2011 .
In addition to the two above-mentioned readings, students not attending lectures are required to agree on the mandatory readings with the teacher andchoose two additional books from the following list:
BiehlJoão, 2009, Will to Live: AIDS Therapies and the Politics of Survival, Princeton University Press.
CsordasThomas J., 2002, Body/Meaning/Healing, Palgrave.
Farmer Paul, 1992, AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame, University of California Press.
FarmerPaul, 1999, Infections and inequalities. The modern plagues, University of California Press.
FarmerPaul, 2003, Pathologies of power. Health, human rights, and the new war on the poor, University of California Press.
FassinDidier, 2007, When Bodies Remember. Experiences and Politics of AIDS in South Africa, University of California Press.
FassinDidier, 2018, Life. A Critical User’s Manual, Polity Press..
FassinDidier and RechtmanRichard, 2009, The Empire of Trauma. An Inquiry into the Condition of Victimhood,Princeton University Press.
KleinmanArthur, 1995, Writing at the Margin: Discourse Between Anthropology and Medicine, University of California Press.
InhornMarcia C., 2003, Local Babies, Global Science: Gender, Religion, and In Vitro Fertilization in Egypt, Routledge.
LockMargaret and NguyenVinh-Kim, 2010, An Anthropology of Biomedicine, Wiley-Blackwell.
LockMargaret, 2001, Twice Dead: Organ Transplants and the Reinvention of Death, University of California Press.
MartinEmily, 1994, Flexible Bodies. Tracking Immunity in American Culture - From the Days of Polio to the Age of AIDS, Beacon Press.
MattinglyCheryl, 1998, Healing dramas and clinical plots. The narrative structure of experience, Cambridge University Press.
MolAnnemarie, 2003, The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice, Duke University Press.
NguyenVinh-Kim, 2010, The Republic of Therapy: Triage and Sovereignty in West Africa’s Time of AIDS, Duke University Press.
PetrynaAdriana, 2002, Life Exposed: Biological Citizens after Chernobyl, Princeton University Press.
TicktinMiriam, 2011, Casualties of Care. Immigration and the politics of humanitarianism in France, University of California Press.Assessment methods
Students attending the lectures will be asked to present one or two of the articles in the bibliography to the class and discuss it with the other students and the lecturer.
These oral presentations will constitute the object of the evaluation.
Students not attending the lectures are required to contact the teacher to agree on the additional readings for the oral evaluation, in addition to the two mandatory readings.Office hours
Please contact the lecturer: lorenzo.alunni@unimib.it
Programme validity
One academic year (2019/2020).
Course tutors and assistants
Students' opinion
Bibliography
Staff
- Lorenzo Alunni