HSSC 533 Folk and Alternative Health Systems
Cross-listed as FOLK 533, RELS 505
Offered:Spring 2008
Hufford M 1-4
This course will offer students the opportunity to critically examine representative complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) health beliefs and practices found within the United States and their cultural position in American society. These will range from cosmopolitan systems such as chiropractic and traditional Chinese Medicine to folk medicine. The philosophical and theoretical premises behind these health systems will be analyzed and compared to the premises of conventional, Western medicine and to one another. This will include a description and discussion of current models for understanding health behavior. Ethical issues and practical applications of this knowledge will also be discussed. The materials and methods of the course will draw on the literatures of the social sciences, history, philosophy, the allied health professions and medicine.
