CC 325 A: Alternative Cultures of Health in America

CC 325 A: Alternative Cultures of Health in America

3 Credits 
TR 1:30-2:45 pm – Professor Howard

Fulfills cultural diversity requirement.

This course will examine alternative cultures of medicine in the United States, predominantly in late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We will investigate diverse traditions specific to three groups: African-Americans, American Indians, and immigrants. Minority cultures within a dominant culture shaped their own views of the body, institutions devoted to its care, ideals of health, and relations among humans and the natural world. The distinctiveness of each culture is salient during this period, when the scope of professional, Western medicine expanded over a greater breadth of Americans’ lives. Approaches offered by these communities both have helped to shape mainstream medicine and also have offered critiques to it. Students will write and present a substantial research paper.