Magic, Science and Healing (SA0069)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 11 ? Acronym : SPS-P-SAMSH

Drawing on insights from anthropology and science studies the course will consider the following debates: is it possible to distinguish between rationality and belief? How can magic and science be ‘political’? Why has the occult persisted in modern society, and why is it that science enchants? It will use ethnographies of witchcraft and sorcery, scientific laboratories, anatomy and immunology, and colonial science to engage with these debates.

Entry Requirements

none

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Postgraduate (School of Social and Political Science), (School of Social and Political Science, Schedule J)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : Postgraduate

? Delivery Period : Semester 1 (Blocks 1-2)

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

All of the following classes

Type	Day	Start	End	Area
Lecture	Friday	09:00	10:50	Central

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, students will be critically engaged with debates pertaining to the anthropology of magic and the anthropology of science. They should be able to apply these ideas to think about different systems of healing. In particular they will be expected to:
• Familiarise themselves with the history of anthropological thinking about science and magic
• Appraise the contribution that science studies have made to theory in anthropology
• Critique the role that epistemological claims play in our understanding of science and magic as ways of ‘knowing’ and ‘believing’