ANTHR 4682

Medicine and Healing in Africa

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2025-2026 Catalog.

Therapeutic knowledge and practice in Africa have changed dynamically over the past century. Yet, questions about healing continue to be questions about the intimate ways that power works on bodies. Accounts of healing and medicine on the continent describe ongoing struggles over what counts as knowledge and who has the authority to intervene in social and physical threats. This class will discuss the expansion of biomedicine in Africa, the continuities and changes embodied in traditional medicine, and the shifting relationship between medicine, science and law. Our readings with trace how colonialism, post-independence nationalism, international development, environmental change and globalization have shaped the experience of illness, debility and misfortune today, as well as the possibilities for life, the context of care, and the meaning of death.

Prerequisites at least one course in Social Sciences or Humanities.

Distribution Requirements (CA-AG, SBA-AG), (GLC-AS, SSC-AS)

Last 4 Terms Offered 2025SP, 2024SP, 2020FA, 2011SP

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