LAIS 151H: HEALTH HEALING LA

University of California, Santa Barbara

An overview of histories of health and healing in Latin America from indepe ndence to the present. For centuries, local healers have practiced popular and traditional medicine alongside the professionally trained. These divers e and varied medical authorities informed each other’s practices and at tim es came into conflict. Main questions to consider include: How have approac hes to healing and disease shifted across time and space? In what ways did Indigenous, African, and Asian healers figure into everyday life and nation al programs? How have gender and race shaped public health policies and str uctures? Finally, how have local peoples responded to these various institu tions, practitioners, and programs?