49335 - MedicalAnthropology

Learning outcomes

By the end of the Medical Anthropology course, students will have acquired the theoretical and methodological tools needed to rethink illness beyond the anatomo-physiological dimension of disease: illness is in fact also inevitably a lived experience, whose significance depends on the impact it has on the social relations and meaning-making processes of those who experience it. Students will also acquire knowledge of the mechanisms underlying the social production of suffering and the promotion of health, understood as a cultural construct to be socially generated.

Course contents

The course is part of the Integrated Course in General Psychology and Medical Anthropology. By the end of the Integrated Course, students will have acquired the notions needed to understand the processes underlying individual and group behaviour.

Contents of the Medical Anthropology course

• the socio-cultural dimensions of biomedicine
• the cultural construction of the experience of illness
• the social production of suffering
• health promotion and the paradigm of care

Readings/Bibliography

• Quaranta, I. (2012). La trasformazione dell’esperienza. Antropologia e processi di cura. Antropologia e Teatro, 3, 1-31.

• Belluto, M., Consoloni, M., Di Pumpo, M., Fantini, S., & Schenone, I. (2022). I bisogni di salute di una comunità: il punto di vista antropologico. Sistema Salute, 306-322.

• Napier, A. D., Ancarno, C., Butler, B., Calabrese, J., Chater, A., Chatterjee, H., ... & Woolf, K. (2014). Culture and health. The Lancet, 384(9954), 1607-1639.

Teaching methods

The course consists of lectures, discussion of case studies in class, and online activities to be carried out on Virtuale.

Attendance is mandatory. To pass the course, students must attend at least 60% of the in-class lectures of the Integrated Course. Students who do not reach this threshold will not obtain the credits provided for and will have to repeat the lectures in the following academic year. Justified absences may be authorised upon presentation of appropriate documentation, in cases of illness or other serious reasons. Authorised absences will not be counted towards the calculation of the minimum required attendance.

Assessment methods

The exam for the Medical Anthropology module is based on the texts listed in the reading list and the materials uploaded to Virtuale, and consists of a written test in the form of a multiple-choice quiz with 10 questions: each correct answer is awarded 1 point, while omitted or incorrect answers do not contribute to the score.

As this course is part of an Integrated Course, the final grade recorded is the sum of the score obtained in the Medical Anthropology test (maximum 10 points) and the score obtained in the General Psychology test (maximum 21 points).

Students with SLD or temporary or permanent disabilities: it is recommended to contact in good time the relevant University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/it/per-studenti) to agree on any adjustments for taking the exam. Adjustments should be proposed to the course instructor, who will assess their appropriateness also in relation to the learning objectives of the course.

Teaching tools

All teaching materials presented during the lectures will be made available online through the University of Bologna's e-learning platform, Virtuale.

Office hours

See the website of Martina Consoloni