Disease and Health: Culture, Society, and Ethics

A photo of a girl with a medical face mask featuring a cat.

While they are worn out of public health concern, face masks are common enough in Korea that they are reusable and carry designs. (Photo courtesy of Nomad Within on Flickr. CC-BY-NC-SA)

Instructor(s)

MIT Course Number

21A.215

As Taught In

Spring 2012

Level

Undergraduate

Cite This Course

Course Description

Course Features

Course Description

This course examines how medicine is practiced cross-culturally, with particular emphasis on Western biomedicine. Students analyze medical practice as a cultural system, focusing on the human, as opposed to the biological, side of things. Also considered is how people in different cultures think of disease, health, body, and mind.

Other Versions

Related Content

Jean Jackson. 21A.215 Disease and Health: Culture, Society, and Ethics. Spring 2012. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare, https://ocw.mit.edu. License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA.


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