Anthropology Club features public lecture by Dr. Roman Franco on 'The Object of Medicine: Towards a Redefinition of Homo sapiens' - March 18, 2011

Friday, March 18, 1 p.m. Rasmuson Hall, Room 117

The presentation will be given by University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, Dr. Roman Franco. This event is sponsored by the UAA Anthropology Club.

Recent advances have drawn attention to the importance of understanding the social dimensions of medicine's fundamental object: Homo sapiens. The field of medicine needs to reassess the relationship with its object away from a strictly biomedical framework to incorporate the body in both its organic and social dimensions. A new definition is essential for identifying what constitutes health and for identifying when a person has entered the realm of illness (as informed by symptoms) and disease (as revealed by signs).

This lecture charges that anthropology, with its contextualized view of Homo sapiens, is better equipped to achieve this task than contemporary medical educators. This talk also underlines how the transformation of medicine's relationship to Homo sapiens is essential if medical educators are to organize education in ways that better meet the needs of individuals and their circumstances.

For more information, please contact Ted Parsons at thparsons@alaska.edu or visit the Anthropology Club website.