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Drugs Across Cultures - ANTH106

This unit is subject to a quota. Limited places are available. Please refer to the Faculty for further information

Using anthropological and ethnographic studies, this unit focuses mainly on the social and cultural contexts of drug use, both legal and illegal. This includes the economic and political factors influencing the production and distribution of drugs and the way in which these processes are enmeshed in a global economy. This unit also examines psychological theories of addiction and the neurology of drug use. Topics include: the international traffic in opium/heroin and cocaine in the Golden Triangle of mainland South–East Asia and in South America and the way this traffic intermeshes with regional politics and local tribal, peasant and commercial systems of production and exchange; the social history of drugs in the USA, UK and Australia; youth culture and drugs in the West; AIDS and intravenous drug use; addiction and treatment; drugs and the law; the global political economy of pharmaceuticals, particularly contraceptives, erectile dysfunction drugs, and antiretrovirals in the age of AIDS; and the placebo effect.

Credit Points: 3
When Offered:

S1 Day - Session 1, North Ryde, Day

S1 Online - Session 1, Online

S3 Online - Session 3, Online

Staff Contact(s): Dr Siobhan Irving, Dr Max Harwood
Prerequisites:

 

Corequisites:

NCCW(s): ANTX106
Unit Designation(s):
Unit Type: Planet unit
Assessed As: Graded
Offered By:

Department of Anthropology

Faculty of Arts

Course structures, including unit offerings, are subject to change.
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