Minor in Medical Anthropology

Students on Summer 2024, Fall 2024, or Spring 2025 requirements MEDANTHMIN

Requirements

The minor requires at least 15 credit hours, including the requirements listed below.

Core.
1. Biocultural Medical Anthropology. One (1) course:
  - ANTH-B 260 Biocultural Medical Anthropology
  ANTH-B 260 Biocultural Medical Anthropology
  Credits
  3
  Prerequisites
  None
  Description
  A survey of health and disease from a biocultural perspective, which incorporates the evolutionary, ecological, and sociocultural context of health and disease to answer such questions as why we get sick and why there is population variation in the risk of becoming sick. Topics include reproductive, infectious, and chronic diseases.
  Summer 2025CASE NMcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE NMcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE NMcourse
2. Culture, Health and Illness. One (1) course:
  - ANTH-E 260 Culture, Health, and Illness
  ANTH-E 260 Culture, Health, and Illness
  Credits
  3
  Prerequisites
  None
  Description
  Across the world, ideas about and experiences of health, "disease," and medicine are profoundly shaped by culture. Introduction to cross-cultural approaches to understanding health and illness, covering topics such as ethnomedicine, ritual healing, gender and health, and international development and global health.
  Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
Methods. One (1) course:
- ANTH-A 306 Anthropological Statistics
- ANTH-B 301 Laboratory in Bioanthropology
- ANTH-E 302
- ANTH-E 485 Art and Craft of Ethnography
ANTH-A 306 Anthropological Statistics
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Fundamentals of univariate and bivariate statistics, construction and interpretation of graphs, and computer-assisted data analysis. Both statistical methodology and theory will be emphasized as well as computer literacy. Students will examine the primary literature in all branches of anthropology to familiarize themselves with the role of statistics in anthropological research.
Repeatability
Credit given for only one of ANTH-A 306, CJUS-K 300, ECON-E 370, ECON-S 370, MATH-K 300, MATH-K 310, POLS-Y 395, PSY-K 300, PSY-K 310, SOC-S 371, SPEA-K 300, SPH-Q 381, STAT-K 310, STAT-S 300, STAT-S 301, or STAT-S 303.
- Summer 2025CASE NMcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE NMcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE NMcourse
ANTH-B 301 Laboratory in Bioanthropology
Credits
3
Prerequisites
ANTH-B 200; or consent of instructor
Description
Covers the methods and techniques of bioanthropology. Emphasis is on developing and testing evolutionary hypotheses using contemporary methods. Includes laboratory investigations of human skeletal biology including age and sex determinations and forensic identification; human paleontological and primate observations; variability in living populations including anthropometry, genetics, bloodtyping, demography; among others.
- Summer 2025CASE NMcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE NMcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE NMcourse
ANTH-E 485 Art and Craft of Ethnography
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Ethnography is the defining core of social and cultural anthropology; field research is at the heart of ethnography. The definition and purpose of ethnography, the role of ethnographer, voice, ethics, and modes of presentation, standards, craft, art, and evaluation are examined through specific cases and exemplary ethnographies.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
Advanced Electives. Two (2) courses:
- ANTH-A 467 Topics in Medical Anthropology
- ANTH-B 312 Evolutionary Medicine
- ANTH-B 340 Hormones and Human Behavior
- ANTH-B 343 Evolution of Human Ecological Footprint
- ANTH-B 370 Human Variation
- ANTH-B 400 Undergraduate Seminar
- ANTH-B 470 Human Adaptation: Biological Approaches
- ANTH-B 480 Human Growth and Development
- ANTH-E 328 Ecological Anthropology
- ANTH-E 337 Food, Sex and Gender
- ANTH-E 338 Stigma and Taboo
- ANTH-E 373 Plagues and People
- ANTH-E 385
- ANTH-E 400 Undergraduate Seminar (approved topics only; see academic advisor)
- ANTH-E 421 Food and Culture
- ANTH-E 445 Seminar in Medical Anthropology
- ANTH-E 456 Anthropology of Race
- ANTH-E 464 Body, Power, and Performance
- ANTH-E 474 The Anthropology of Human Rights
- ANTH-E 490 Development and Anthropology
- ANTH-P 375 Food in the Ancient World
- ANTH-P 380 Prehistoric Diet and Nutrition
ANTH-A 467 Topics in Medical Anthropology

Credits
3
Prerequisites
Junior standing; or consent of instructor
Description
In-depth perspectives on central topics in contemporary medical anthropology. Focus varies and may include such topics as HIV-AIDS in cross-cultural context; anthropological perspectives on disability; child health and nutrition; health and structural inequalities; and medical anthropology of gender and reproduction.
Repeatability
May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
ANTH-B 312 Evolutionary Medicine
Credits
3
Prerequisites
ANTH-B 200; or consent of instructor
Description
Incorporates principles from evolutionary theory into our understanding of various infectious and chronic diseases common to human populations both past and present. Although proximate mechanisms involving physiology and behavior will be discussed, the focus will be to determine why such mechanisms have evolved in the first place.
- Summer 2025CASE NMcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE NMcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE NMcourse
ANTH-B 340 Hormones and Human Behavior
Credits
3
Prerequisites
At least junior standing; or consent of instructor
Notes
R: College-level introductory biology course or ANTH-B 200
Description
Reviews the roles of hormones in the evolution and expression of human and nonhuman animal behaviors. Emphasis placed on behaviors associated with aggression, stress, mating, and parenting. Particularly relevant for students interested in human health and the environment.
- Summer 2025CASE NMcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE NMcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE NMcourse
ANTH-B 343 Evolution of Human Ecological Footprint
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
The current environmental crisis did not begin overnight and likely has roots deep in our evolutionary history. Although the scale of our effects on the biosphere has only recently shown exponential growth, it is worth examining how we got to this point today. This course explores a series of threshold moments in the history of our species that had great implications for the environment.
- Summer 2025CASE SLcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SLcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SLcourse
ANTH-B 370 Human Variation
Credits
3
Prerequisites
ANTH-B 200; or consent of instructor
Description
Explores the variation within and between human populations in morphology (anatomy), physiology, genetics, and behavior with a focus on evolutionary processes acting on humans in the past, present and future to shape our body and genes.
- Summer 2025CASE NMcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE NMcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE NMcourse
ANTH-B 400 Undergraduate Seminar

Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Selected topics in bioanthropology. Analysis of research. Development of skills in analysis and criticism. Topic varies.
Repeatability
May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 9 credit hours.
ANTH-B 470 Human Adaptation: Biological Approaches
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Examines the concept of adaptation within the framework of bioanthropology, anthropology, and other disciplines. Focuses on individual and population responses to heat, cold, solar radiation, high altitude, and nutritional and disease stress.
- Summer 2025CASE NMcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE NMcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE NMcourse
ANTH-B 480 Human Growth and Development

Credits
3
Prerequisites
ANTH-B 200 or ANTH-B 301
Description
Characteristics of human growth and development from birth to maturity, establishment of adult form and aging. Investigation of the causes of variation in growth and development across human populations, and methods for assessing growth and development.
ANTH-E 328 Ecological Anthropology
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Survey of anthropological approaches to the study of human interaction with the environment: history of ideas, major theories, critiques, and contemporary approaches.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
ANTH-E 337 Food, Sex and Gender
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Studies a range of people and places--from cave dwellers to reality TV, New Guinea to New York. Explores how food reflects and creates gender and promotes and expresses sexuality. Readings from many disciplines will foster wide ranging and lively discussion.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
ANTH-E 338 Stigma and Taboo
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Examines the relation between stigma and taboo, specifically how stigmatized groups and taboo practices are marked by moral judgement. We examine theory and particular cases to identify strategies to combat moralizing logics as related to race, class, gender, and the body broadly speaking.
- Summer 2025CASE AHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE AHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE AHcourse
ANTH-E 373 Plagues and People
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Examines pandemics as cultural phenomena. Provides a backdrop to the 2020-2022 pandemic by studying how anthropologists and historians have viewed pandemics in different places and times. Explores cultural understandings of social solidarity, family obligations, the common good, risk, responsibility, authority, and the enforcement of new social norms in this context.
- Summer 2025CASE GCCcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE GCCcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE GCCcourse
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
ANTH-E 400 Undergraduate Seminar

Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Intensive examination of selected topics in anthropology. Emphasis on analytic investigation and critical discussion. Topics vary.
Repeatability
May be taken with a different topic for a maximum of 9 credit hours.
ANTH-E 421 Food and Culture
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Discussion of the economy of food production, trade and consumption on a global basis. Gives a cross-cultural and historical perspective on the development of cooking and cuisine in relationship to individual, national, and ethnic identity. Relates cuisine to modernity, migration, and forms of cultural mixing and Creolization.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
ANTH-E 445 Seminar in Medical Anthropology
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
This advanced seminar in medical anthropology focuses on theoretical approaches to understanding the body and notions of health, illness, and disease across cultures. Concentrates on interpretive and critical (political economy) approaches to issues of health and includes critical study of Western biomedicine.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
ANTH-E 456 Anthropology of Race

Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Explores race from a cultural anthropological perspective and investigates the history of this idea within the discipline as well as its dissemination in international society. Examines the play between challenges to race as an intellectual paradigm and the resilient status of race-thinking in society at large.
ANTH-E 464 Body, Power, and Performance
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Looks at performance in relation to social power by focusing on the body. Examines the extent to which several interdisciplinary readings on performance theory--largely emerging as they have from Western intellectual traditions--speak to embodied/performative negotiations of social power outside "the West."
- Summer 2025CASE AHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE AHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE AHcourse
ANTH-E 474 The Anthropology of Human Rights

Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Investigates anthropology's theoretical and practical engagements with global social justice. Examines a number of texts central to the development of the notion of human rights, and explores several case studies oriented around a range of historical and contemporary human rights issues.

ANTH-E 490 Development and Anthropology

Credits
3
Prerequisites
ANTH-E 420; or consent of instructor
Description
Focuses on theories of development, ethical issues surrounding development, practical issues related to development including interactions with development agencies, and the ways development anthropology has been employed in specific projects around the world.
ANTH-P 375 Food in the Ancient World
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Examines the theoretical and methodological tools that archaeologists use to study food and foodways in ancient societies from a global anthropological perspective. Reveals how studying food and ancient foodways helps anthropologists gain insight into the economic, historic, and political realities of past peoples.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
ANTH-P 380 Prehistoric Diet and Nutrition
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
How the long-term history of human diet has influenced our genetic, physiological, cultural, and socioeconomic development. Evolutionary and ecological perspectives on modern human diet and nutrition, including survey of modern human and nonhuman primate diets and the record of prehistoric human diet and methods of dietary reconstruction.
- Summer 2025CASE NMcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE NMcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE NMcourse
Minor GPA, Hours, and Minimum Grade Requirements.
1. Minor GPA. A GPA of at least 2.000 for all courses taken in the minor—including those where a grade lower than C- is earned—is required.
2. Minor Minimum Grade. Except for the GPA requirement, a grade of C- or higher is required for a course to count toward a requirement in the minor.
3. Minor Upper Division Credit Hours. At least 9 credit hours in the minor must be completed at the 300–499 level.
4. Minor Residency. At least 9 credit hours in the minor must be completed in courses taken through the Indiana University Bloomington campus or an IU-administered or IU co-sponsored Overseas Study program.

Minor Area Courses

Unless otherwise noted below, the following courses are considered in the academic program and will count toward academic program requirements as appropriate:
- Any course contained on the course lists for the academic program requirements at the time the course is taken—as well as any other courses that are deemed functionally equivalent—except for those listed only under Addenda Requirements
- Any course directed to a non-Addenda requirement through an approved exception

This program of study cannot be combined with the following:

Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology (ANTHBA)
Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Linguistics (ANTHLNGBA)
Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics and Anthropology (LINGANTBA)
Certificate in Global Human Diversity (GLHMDVACRT)
Minor in Anthropology (ANTHMIN)
Minor in Archaeology (ARCHMIN)
Minor in Ethnography of Communication (ETHCOMMMIN)
Minor in the Anthropology of Food (FOODMIN)
[Name unavailable] (ETHCOMACRT)

Exceptions to and substitutions for minor requirements may be made with the approval of the unit's Director of Undergraduate Studies, subject to final approval by the College of Arts and Sciences.

Minor in Medical Anthropology

Requirements

Minor hours and GPA

Minor Area Courses

Restrictions on combining this minor with other academic programs

Minor requirement exceptions and substitutions