Course Syllabus

 

History of Science E-146

Medicine and the Body in East Asia and Europe

Spring 2016

Lectures Taped on Monday and Wednesday at 11 and a weekly online section

Instructor: SHIGEHISA KURIYAMA

 

Overview

Why is there a history to medicine? It is generally assumed that the anatomy and physiology of the body in fifth century BCE Greece, say, or second century CE China are no different from those of our own bodies here and now. What explains, then, such distinctions as Greek medicine and Chinese medicine, traditional medicine and modern medicine? How can we understand the striking differences in the beliefs and practices of diverse medical periods and traditions, when we believe the body to be one and unique? This may be the most fundamental puzzle of medical history.

 

HSCI E-146 explores this puzzle with respect to medicine and the body in East Asia and Europe. We will study basic aspects of difference like these: Why did acupuncture make sense in China? Why did the Western conception of the body—not only in medicine, but in art—come to place such emphasis on muscles, a concept alien to traditional East Asia? We will also scrutinize the surprising history of connection between the two medical traditions—how the histories of East Asia and Europe must be understood in the context of ceaseless global interactions, such as those that made tea an indispensable drink in the West, and brought Indian opium to China. And finally, we shall ponder the nature and meaning of the dramatic changes that transformed both traditions in the past two centuries.

What Will You Learn?

1. You will gain a radically new understanding of the differences between traditional East Asian and Western medicine—an understanding that will almost certainly be not all like how you might currently imagine their differences.
2. You will gain a basic grasp of the historical evolution of conceptions of the body in East Asia and In Europe from antiquity to the present.
3. You will come to see your own body—and the world around you—with new eyes (really!)
4. You will discover many little known but fascinating gems of comparative cultural history, each of which are so interesting that you will immediately want to share them with relatives and friends.
5. Last, but far from least, you will be introduced to the use of digital technologies to make new discoveries yourself, and to present them in multimedia form.

A few words about the last item. One of the greatest, if often unrecognized, benefits of taking a Harvard Extension School course is access to the vast electronic databases to which Harvard University subscribes. We will teach you how to unlock the latent possibilities of these powerful databases so that you yourself can begin to make original historical discoveries that no one has made before. That is, the course will not only teach you about history, but also introduce you to how to do history. (And you’ll see: it’s tremendous fun!)

You will also get practice in presenting your historical discoveries in media-rich narratives. Don’t worry, we’ll teach you: no previous experience in podcasting or movie making is required. You’ll be surprised how easy and empowering it is to acquire skill in multimedia presentation.

REQUIRED BOOKS FOR PURCHASE

1. *Shigehisa Kuriyama, The expressiveness of the body and the divergence of Greek and Chinese medicine (ZONE Books); (*An online version of the book is also accessible to Harvard students; locate the book in Hollis, click on the internet link, and sign in with your ID)
2. Scott McCloud, Understanding comics (Harper Perennial)
3. Lynn Payer, Medicine and culture: varieties of treatment in the United States, England, West Germany, and France (H. Holt)
4. Wolfgang Schivelbusch, Tastes of paradise (Vintage Books)

All other readings will be available online.

 

LECTURE AND ASSIGNMENT COURSE SCHEDULE

INTRODUCTION

Week 1

Jan 25 The fundamental puzzle of the history of medicine

Jan 27 Rethinking the shape of medical history

READING: Kuriyama, Expressiveness of the body, Chapters 1-4

 

THEME 1: WAYS OF KNOWING THE BODY

Week 2

Feb 1 Making sense of qi

Feb 3 The idea of a material body

SECTION 1 Discussion of readings, and introduction to the Digital Tours platform

Kuriyama, Expressiveness of the body, Chapters 5 and 6.

Kuriyama, “The forgotten fear of excrement,” Journal of medieval and early modern studies 38 (2008): 413-442.

Ian Belcher, “The enema within (Links to an external site.).” The Guardian, 9 March 2002.

Week 3

Feb 8 Bodies known from the outside (The history of sensory knowledge)

Feb 10 Bodies known from within (Techniques of the body)

SECTION 2: Digital Tours exercise #1: “What does it mean to see?”

Scott McCloud, Understanding comics (entire book)

Week 4

Feb 15: No class (PRESIDENT'S DAY)

Feb 17 The body and the world

SECTION 3: Discussion of readings

• Hippocrates, “Airs, waters places” (Parts 1-16), “Epidemics 1” (Parts 1-8) 
• Huangdi neijing (Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine) Chapters 2 and 3
• Introduction to Chinese alchemy : "Introduction to Chinese alchemy", "1.The elixir in external alchemy," "2.Alchemy and cosmology," "3. Internal alchemy"

 

THEME 2: THE HISTORY OF DIS-EASES

Week 5

Feb 22 Diseases and dis-eases 

Feb 24 Comparative nosology

SECTION 4: Problem set introducing the use of databases

Week 6

Feb 29 QUIZ 1

Mar 2 Local afflictions

SECTION 5 Discussion of reading, Lynn Payer, Medicine and culture (entire book)

Week 7

Mar 7 Mind and body

Mar 9 Body and mind

SECTION 6: Digital Tour exercise (#2) on “Dis-eases and cures”

1. Kuriyama, “The historical origins of katakori,” Japan review 9 (1997): 127-149.
2. Ian Hacking, “Two souls in one body,” Critical inquiry 17 (1991), 838-867.

MARCH 12-20 SPRING BREAK

THEME 3: FOODS AND MEDICINES 

Week 8

Mar 21 Drugs and global history

Mar 23 Revolutions in taste

SECTION 7: Discussion of reading: W. Schivelbusch, Tastes of paradise (entire book)

Week 9

Mar 28 The importance of poisons

Mar 30 The promise of elixirs

SECTION 8: Digital Tour exercise (#3) on foods and medicines

Kuriyama, “The geography of ginseng, and the strange alchemy of needs,” forthcoming in Y. Bataki ed., The botany of empire (Dumbarton Oaks)

THEME 4: LIFE AND DEATH

Week 10

Apr 4 The border between life and death

Apr 6 How the living relate to the dead

SECTION 9: Discussion of readings

1. Caroline Bynum, “Material continuity, personal survival, and the resurrection of the body: a scholastic discussion in its medieval and modern contexts,” History of Religions, Vol. 30, No. 1, The Body (Aug., 1990), pp. 51-85.
2. Margaret Lock, “Deadly disputes hybrid selves and the `calculation of death in Japan and North America,” Osiris 2ndseries, vol. 13 (1998): 410-429.
3. RadioLab Episode (Links to an external site.) on the Inconnue de la Seine
4. Class Death Exhibit, Harvard University Art Museum

Recommended Further Readings:

Jonathan Sterne, “A resonant tomb,” The audible past (Duke University Press, 2003): 282-311. (On the relation between death culture and the origins of the phonograph.) 

Week 11

Apr 11 Modernity and the self

Apr 13 Toward a history of body image

SECTION 10: Digital Tour exercise (#4) on the class installation in the Harvard Art Museum

1. Georg Simmel, The metropolis and mental life, introduction
   

  

THEME 5: THE FUTURE OF THE BODY

Week 12

Apr 18 The animate and inanimate

Apr 20 The dream of eternal life   

SECTION 11: Discussion of readings and review for Quiz #2

1. Jay Olshansky et al., “No truth to the fountain of youth,” Scientific American, June 2002, 92-95.
2. Leon Kass, “The case for mortality,” The American scholar, vol. 52 (1963), 173-191.
3. Rose Eveleth, “Robots: is the uncanny valley real?” BBC article, 2 September 2013
4. Michel Specter, “The gene hackers,” New Yorker Magazine, November 16, 2015

Recommended Further Readings:

1. Angelika Kretschmer, “Mortuary rites for inanimate objects: The case of hari kuyō,” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, Vol. 27, No. 3/4, Mortuary Rites in Japan (Fall, 2000), pp. 379-404.

Week 13

Apr 25 Conclusion: How history lives within us

Apr 27 QUIZ 2

 

GRADING

Section participation                5% (all sections required; unexcused absence => 0%)

Quiz 1:                                    10%

Quiz 2:                                    25 %

Problem Set                           5%

Mini-Digital Tours                   25%

(6.25% x 4)

Final Digital Tour                    30%

 

A NOTE ON THE DIGITAL TOURS AND ON COLLABORATIONS

During the course of the semester, we will be making extensive use of the Digital Tours platform created by the Harvard Art Museum. This is a simple online tool that will allow you easily to compose interesting multimedia narratives. After the tool is introduced in the first section, students will have the opportunity to gradually build up their repertory of storytelling skills, working individually or in collaboration with classmates.

Rules regarding collaboration:

1 .Collaboration on all section assignments (the Problem Set and mini-Digital Tours) is allowed, but by no means not required.

2. You may collaborate with up to two other classmates on any one assignment.
3. You are allowed, however, to collaborate only twice with any one classmate.

Of course no collaboration is permitted in Quizzes, and the Final Digital Tour must be an individual project. Mini-Digital tours must be submitted online by the evening before the section meeting, and the Final Digital Tour is due by midnight Thursday, May 5 (EDT). Late submissions will be penalized.