ASS206 - Medical Anthropology

Year:

2025 unit information

Enrolment modes:

Trimester 2: Burwood (Melbourne), Waurn Ponds (Geelong), Online, Community Based Delivery (CBD)*

Credit point(s): 1
EFTSL value: 0.125
Prerequisite:

Nil

Corequisite: Nil
Incompatible with: ASS306
Study commitment

Students will on average spend-150 hours over the teaching period undertaking the teaching, learning and assessment activities for this unit.

This will include educator guided online learning activities within the unit site.

Scheduled learning activities - campus

1 x 1-hour on-campus lecture per week

1 x 1-hour on-campus seminar per week

Scheduled learning activities - online

1 x 1-hour online lecture per week (recordings provided)

1 x 1-hour online seminar per week

Note:

*Community Based Delivery (CBD): only for students of the National Indigenous Knowledges, Education, Research and Innovation NIKERI Institute (located at the Waurn Ponds campus)

Content

The study of human knowledge systems in the area of health and illness lies at the heart of anthropology as a whole. Medical anthropology is thus pivotal to the discipline and is also a major point of articulation between anthropology and other sciences. In this unit, students will learn key concepts and approaches in medical anthropology through the study of a spectrum of traditions of healing and embodiment, as well as the study of western medicine, or biomedicine, as a distinctive cultural system. Through detailed case studies of different medical phenomena and how humans act in relation to them, students will examine health and healing from a cross-cultural, “biosocial” perspective. Fundamental concepts such as the division between mind and body, the social construction of disease, culture-bound syndromes, and structural violence will be examined. Special emphasis is given to the relationship between health, disease, systems of power, and disparities in wealth and resources.

Unit Fee Information

Fees and charges vary depending on the type of fee place you hold, your course, your commencement year, the units you choose to study and their study discipline, and your study load.

Tuition fees increase at the beginning of each calendar year and all fees quoted are in Australian dollars ($AUD). Tuition fees do not include textbooks, computer equipment or software, other equipment or costs such as mandatory checks, travel and stationery.

Estimate your fees

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