Medical Anthropology is a growing and important new subfield within general

anthropology.  Medical Anthropology compares different cultures' ideas about illness

and curing.  Although disease is a concept referring to a pathological condition of the body in

which functioning is disturbed, illness is a cultural concept: a condition marked by deviation

from what is considered a normal, healthy state.  Treatment of illness in Western post-industrial

societies focuses on curing specific diseased organs or controlling a specific virus.  In many

so-called "traditional" societies greater emphasis is placed on the social and psychological

dimensions of illness.

In this course we will learn that different cultures, even in the United States (i.e., Hispanic,

Asian, American Indian, African American, etc.), have different ways to talk about illness, and that the

American medical community is at times as "culture bound" as anywhere.  “Science" does not stand

outside culture.