Health, Healing & Religions
Course Outline
| Religious Studies 2-320 | TTH 2:30-4:00; | EC 223 | |
| Thom Parkhill | office: EC 315 | office hours: MW 1:30-2:30, F 2:00-3:00 | e-mail: parkhill |
January 6, 1998
Overview
We live in a society that is simultaneously obsessed with health issues and oblivious to the subtle
forces which shape how we construct ideas of health, illness, and wellness. Perhaps because we
are privileged to have access to interrelated programs of curing that are effective (a "health
system"), we take for granted the way those programs make sense -- or fail to make sense -- of
illness. In this course we will together attempt to glimpse how our society tries to make sense of
disease by looking around at the ways people of other times and in other places understand what
constitutes health and illness and how one comes to be healed.
Someone who is feeling argumentative might be thinking: "I mean, we know what sickness is, and
we know how people get well, so why look at other ways to understand these things, especially
when our ways are better?" I sympathize, but I want us to reconsider this taken-for-granted
position. Because these ideas are for the most part hidden from us, they are difficult to explain.
If you look carefully at the first paragraph, you will see I am making a distinction between making
people well -- "curing" -- and making sense of disease -- "healing." Both, it seems to me, are
important. I am sure our society does a good job with the former; I'm not so sure we do very
well with the latter. Making sense of humans' lives is often the purview of religions, which is why
you find yourself in a religious studies course studying illness and wellness.
Let me have one more go at these ideas. The whole range of the human experience of illness,
health and healing is like a territory which we cannot ever fully grasp. Instead we have maps
which we learn to read and to construct, maps that give us the surety we need to live our lives in
the face of becoming debilitated and eventually dying. Those maps differ from culture to culture
and from historical period to historical period. Other cultures have diseases we don't experience
(older males in Chinese culture can be afflicted by koro, a disease virtually unknown here); and we
have treatable illnesses which people in other cultures do not experience (women in Japan rarely
experience any negative symptoms during menopause). These differences are like vantage points
which we can use to see our own taken-for-granted, deeply held ideas of the nature of the
territory (our own map).(1)
Method
Notice that I am not interested in figuring out which religion or which cultural map of health and
healing is "best." This is a fool's game. I am interested in finding out how other cultures map the
territory of health and illness so we might better understand our own map or maps. In this course
we will conduct inquiries into this area in a collaborative fashion.
I will ask you to engage in two "cycles of inquiry." The first will use as a springboard the first
two parts of the common text, David Kinsley's Health, Healing & Religion: A Cross-Cultural
Perspective: "Traditional Cultures" and "Christianity." The second cycle of inquiry will use the
reports from the first along with the third part of the common text to examine some aspect of the
modern medical culture that most of us are part of, or some aspect of some alternative health
practice which has no overt religious underpinnings, popular in our society. In both cycles of
inquiry -- the one focused on more traditionally religious maps, and the one focused on apparently
secular maps -- I will ask you to work with others in the class to research the conversations going
on in the topic you choose, and to collaborate on a written report of your group's findings.
In other words, because we will be sharing our learnings, working with and learning from each
other -- in writing and in oral discussion -- the work of the course will become collaborative. One
aim of the course is to encourage each participant to become a class colleague -- to teach and
learn from one another. In other courses like this one students have found they are writing
frequently, some of the time in the computer labs; that their class colleagues are often reading
their work; that they typically have to work in the library; that they work with their class
colleagues on projects in groups of different sizes. To provide a means for you to write and to
read each other's writing we rely on the linked computers on the top floor of Sir James Dunn Hall
and in the basement of this building, as well as on the photocopiers of the University and the
Harriet Irving Library.
For almost every class I'll be writing you and your colleagues a letter that I call a "prompt".
The prompts are most often intended to guide you in your cycles of inquiry.
The prompts will ask you to do academic sorts of things -- reading, thinking, writing. I want you
to keep a record of these academic endeavours in a "portfolio," a fancy word for a file folder or
three-ring binder in which you keep a copy of every piece of writing you do for this course --
every piece, that is, that you want me to see. Your portfolio is a chance to put all of your work in
one place so I might assess it. I am always asked, "Should I put this thing or that thing in my
portfolio?" You choose what goes in your portfolio; you control what I see of your individual
work. If you are not particularly proud of a piece of work, simply leave it out. I only insist that
you make a "table of contents" for your portfolio, so I won't go looking for something that isn't
there. I will ask to see your portfolio at the end of the term, on April 13. In addition, I will ask
you to reflect on your learning for the course.
Evaluation and Learning
The standard university course requires students to write tests, exams, and essays. This course
does not. Without these requirements, I cannot evaluate your work by standard methods. Thus,
your evaluation will consist of three parts:
Part 1, the minimum or base grade which reflects your attendance and your responses to the
prompts. If you attend consistently and respond to the prompts consistently, you will earn, for a
"base grade", a grade in the "C" range. What's "consistently" mean? For me it means missing no
more than a couple of classes a term (in this course a couple of classes equals missing a week of
class), and responding to all the prompts (see the item on "late assignments and excused
absences" which follows). If you do not attend class consistently and/or do not respond to the
prompts consistently, your base grade will go down. Regardless of how you do in the other two
areas of evaluation, your final mark will not be lower than your base grade. It may, of course, be
higher. You can earn a higher-than-base grade by doing well in the other two areas of
evaluation.(2)
Part 2, a mark, added to this minimum, based on my assessment of the quality of your work as
reflected in the learning reflections of your colleagues, that is, what they write about your
contribution to their learning;
Part 3, a mark, added to the minimum, based on my assessment of the quality of your portfolio,
including your learning reflections. This will especially include what and how you write about
what you have learned from your class colleagues.
I will ask for your learning reflections on three different occasions: February 10, March 10, and
April 13. At least the first two of these will involve filling out an electronic form with questions
that I hope will help you focus your thoughts. I am aware that students often find this process
difficult. If learning to think about what one has learned weren't so vital to thinking critically and
well, I wouldn't be asking you to do it.
Information and Suggestions
1. Late assignments/excused absences. When someone asks me to be excused from a class or an
assignment, I often feel the request is really for forgiveness. In fact I can forgive most absences
and lapses in responding to prompts; but I cannot excuse them. There are no excuses in RS 2-230. As you will see, an assignment passed in late is useless to your class colleagues and thus is
as good as not done; and an absence from class is often an absence from your group whether you
have a good reason or not. Late assignments are assignments not done; and an absence is an
absence is an absence. Usually I don't need to know if you are planning to be absent from a class;
usually the group you are working with will. I know, this is hard to understand. Here's real-world analogy that I hope helps: If your friend needs your hammer and your skills on Friday to
build a new pen for his pet bull moose and if you arrive on Monday, the day after mating season
has begun, it does him no good at all, no matter how good the hammer is or how good you are at
building moose pens. The bull moose is gone and the neighbours are complaining they can't sleep
for the noise, and a small-sized Toyota has turned up with its side all bashed in. You tell me if
you are "excused" or not. It may not seem to you that your contribution is as vital as my analogy
suggests, but my experience is that your group colleagues may well feel it is.
2. Save all the work of the course. We produce lots of writing in this course. Despite the use of
computers, there's a huge amount of paper, which I expect you to save and keep track of at least
until April. The prompts are only a small part of these. I find a three-ring binder and a paper
punch a great way to keep track of all the paper. You will learn ways to keep an electronic copy
of your important electronic mail messages and electronic files. I strongly suggest you keep a
paper or electronic copy of every significant contribution you pass in or write to the shared
directory on the computer network. This means getting a few small diskettes on which to copy
electronic files. Ignore this at your peril!
3. Textbooks and Examinations. There is the one common text as noted above. In addition,
please set aside at least $20.00 for photocopying (the cost of a "big" debit card in the library).
You will find it necessary to photocopy library material as well as your own and colleagues' work.
(These amounts are estimates). There are no examinations in RS 2-230. A caution, however:
you can plan on spending the time you would have spent cramming for exams in this course
working consistently throughout the term. Figure on about approximately five hours in addition
to class time each week.
4. Many times when you write something in response to a prompt, it will be read by some or all of
your class colleagues. Please keep this simple fact in mind when you are preparing assignments
for this course. If the work is going to be on paper, make sure it is dark enough to photocopy. If
the work takes electronic form (e-mail or a file), make sure you put your name on it. An excellent
piece of work that is unreadable cannot be used. Only you will know how good it is. Your class
colleagues will not, nor will I. If it's unsigned, we can use it, but you cannot be acknowledged for
it.
The Class Begins On Thursday
After reflecting on what you have just read and on this afternoon's class, you may feel you
are not comfortable with the style of learning in RS 2-230. Or you may feel you are not ready to
take on the kind of commitment to learning that the course requires. No problem, eh? There are
other religious studies courses you may take.
Today is an information session; the class begins Thursday afternoon ... I'll take the first
attendance then. If you need to drop RS 2-230 before then, that's okay. I know the course will
work best with and for people who want to be here.
If you want to stay with the course, I would ask you to e-mail me with your name and logon ID before Thursday at 10:00 am. Instructions for doing this will be available at the end of class.
_________________
Endnotes
1. I know of this idea of map and territory from Jonathan Z. Smith's Map is Not Territory (Leiden, 1978).
2. I noted that your base grade is augmented by the two other marks. The exception to this is if you earn an F as a base grade. Missing lots of classes earns you an F; so does not responding to lots of prompts. You cannot pass the course if you earn an F as a base grade; if there are other marks they are not counted.