SOSANT2550 ¨C Medical anthropology

Course content

Medical anthropology studies the universal human experience of health and illness, and practices and technologies of medicine and treatment, across societies and cultures, in different historical and local situations, and under the impact of global political, economic and environmental changes. As anthropology students, you can apply your knowledge to concrete problems of health, and if you come from other subjects, this interdisciplinary field is a great introduction to social anthropology. Medical anthropology covers a broad range of themes related to body and health: classics like family and lifecourse, faith and the afterlife, healing and ritual, and topics like political economy and the state, biomedicine, science and technology, or imperialism and historical change.

Studying medical anthropology, you learn about existential experiences shared among humans of different places and times, about human diversity and creativity and entanglements with non-human life, and not least about inequalities of class and gender as well as racism that affect human opportunities to live well. We will cover topics like illness narratives and care, diagnosis and medicines, biomedicine, alternative practices and planetary medicine, and touch upon issues like childbirth, mental health, toxicity and environment, occupational health, disability, infrastructure and science, hospitals, health systems pharmaceuticals and epidemics.

Learning outcome

Knowledge

• Knowledge of different anthropological approaches to key issues of health and healing around the world
• Understanding of biomedicine in relation to local conditions, global historical forces, and other forms of medical thinking and practice
• Grasp of medical anthropology as a subfield of general anthropology, its history and its ties into general anthropological themes
• Insight into the role of medical anthropology as a tool of social and political critique

Skills

• Ability to compare and link key current authors and texts in medical anthropology
• Capability to discuss recent theoretical approaches to issues of health and disease globally
• Ability to approach familiar healthcare practices and situations with an anthropological gaze
• Capacity to critically analyse aspects of health policies, practices and technologies

General competence

• Capacity to communicate medical anthropological ideas orally and in writing
• Competence to anthropologically reflect on and engage in scholarly discussions and public debates about health, illness and medicine
• Insights that have the potential to contribute to improving health care and wellbeing in diverse contexts

Admission to the course

Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for in Studentweb.

If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures.

Overlapping courses

• 10 credits overlap with SOSANMTL.
• 10 credits overlap with SOSANT200.
• 10 credits overlap with SOSANT2550P.

Teaching

Lectures.

Compulsory elements

• Presentation, max five minutes, about one monograph from the reading list.
• One-page (max 500 words) reading summary on one monograph from the reading list; written feedback will be provided.

Examination

Take-home exam (choice of three questions) of 3000 words (+/- 10%), excl. references.

• Previous exams

Examination support material

All exam support materials are allowed during this exam. Generating all or parts of the exam answer using AI tools such as Chat GPT or similar is not allowed.

Language of examination

The examination text is given in English. You may submit your response in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or English.

Grading scale

Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.

Also see?Grading guidelines in social anthropology.

More about examinations at UiO

• Use of sources and citations
• Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
• Withdrawal from an exam
• Illness at exams / postponed exams
• Explanation of grades and appeals
• Resitting an exam
• Cheating/attempted cheating

You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.