USU Cultural Field School 1997
Ecuadorian Ethnomedicine

Dr. Bonnie Glass-Coffin, Utah State University, Director

This four week course combined classroom and field-based learning, including:

1. an overview of traditional and alternative medical practices in Ecuador
2. Andean cosmologies, body concepts, and orientations toward health and illness
3. shamanic healing in Northwestern South America
4. an introduction to ethnobotany
5. contemporary dilemmas in the study of ethnomedicine: intellectual property rights, bio-prospecting, and ethics in fieldwork

Students had the opportunity to work with Anthropology majors at Quito's Catholic University (Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecuador for you Spanish-buffs) and Ecuadorian curanderos (shamans).