# Health and Medicine

**Source**: https://anthropology.cornell.edu/health-medicine
**Parent**: https://anthropology.cornell.edu/anthropology-major

For those with interests in health and medicine, anthropology offers a powerful lens for examining healing practices and diverse understandings of life (and death).  Students examine the distribution of illness, the ethics of medicine, and the politics of the body within a global framework. Courses in this area of interest hone your ability to define the structural components of health, a skill that is critical to medical practice. They also teach you how to attend to cultural differences, develop your ability to work with diverse populations, and provide the methodological tools for research across various dimensions of health. Students learn to think subtly about the way that health and its limits are shaped by culture, society, and politics. Students learn to investigate economic and legal structures, international and global health efforts, technologies of regulation, and management of expertise, as well as historically grounded practices of care and healing.

Watch this ["Anthropology Minor for Pre-Health Students" video](https://www.cornell.edu/video/anthropology-minor-pre-health-students) to learn more about how Anthropology can help prepare students for a career in Medicine.

## Courses of interest in Health and Medicine:

- ANTHR 2245 Health & Disease in the Ancient World
- ANTHR 2424 Culture and Mental Health: Anthropological Perspectives
- ANTHR 2468 Medicine, Culture and Society
- ANTHR 2546 South Asian Religions in Practice: The Healing Traditions

See Anthropology faculty for more courses related to this topic.

- [Academics](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/academics)

  - [The Anthropology Major](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/anthropology-major)

    - [Guidelines and Procedures for Undergraduate Honors](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/guidelines-and-procedures-undergraduate-honors-anthropology)
    - [How to Write the Major Proposal](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/how-write-major-proposal)
  - [Minors in Anthropology](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/minors-anthropology)
  - [Courses](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/courses)
  - [Transfer Credits](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/transfer-credits)
  - [Graduate Program](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/graduate-program-anthropology)
  - [Department of Anthropology PhD Handbook](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/department-anthropology-phd-handbook)
  - [Engaged Anthropology](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/engaged-anthropology)
  - [Pathways in Anthropology](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/pathways-anthropology)

    - [Activism and Social Justice](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/activism-social-justice)
    - [Environment](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/environment)
    - [Global Economy and Inequality](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/global-economy-and-inequality)
    - [Health and Medicine](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/health-medicine)
    - [Heritage](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/heritage)
    - [Law and Politics](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/law-politics)
- [People](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/anthropology-faculty)

  - [Adjunct/Affiliated Faculty and Post-docs](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/adjunct-affiliated-postdocs)
  - [Anthropology Graduate Students](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/anthro-grad-students)
  - [Core Department Faculty](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/anthropology-faculty)
  - [Emeritus Faculty](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/emeritus)
  - [Graduate Field Faculty](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/grad-field-faculty)
- [Research](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/research)

  - [Anthropology Faculty: Recent Books](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/faculty-books)
  - [Freedman Award Information](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/freedman-award-application-information)
  - [More Books by Anthropology Faculty](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/more-books-anthropology-faculty)
  - [Student Research in Anthropology](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/student-research-anthropology)
- [About Us](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/about)

  - [Alumni](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/alumni)
  - [Anthropology Collections](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/anthropology-collections)
  - [Department Contacts](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/department-contacts)
  - [Department History](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/department-history)
  - [Student Groups](https://anthropology.cornell.edu/student-groups)