Paper short abstract:

This report presents a Bourdieusian analysis of teaching and learning anthropology in a medical school in Taiwan. With an emphasis on the mutual constitution and constraint between the medical field and agentive practice, it presents a local case within the globalized medical education discourse.

Paper long abstract:

Since the late 19th century, anthropology has been assigned a constitutive role in the development of medical education, and this role was later reformulated in the growing domain of medical humanities. In contrast to the global discourse of modern medical education, this report presents a local story from the experience of an anthropologist teaching Anthropology in a medical school.

Based on the findings from the author’s previous studies, which focused on the medical habitus and social and behavioral sciences education in Taiwan’s medical schools, this report presents a realistic description of Anthropology in Medical Education. Field observations and critical reflections are also included to demonstrate how Medical Education works as the formative field forging social sciences knowledge, including Anthropology, into future physicians.

This story is a Bourdieusian analysis that delves into how different actors within and without a medical institute come together to form the conditions of teaching and learning anthropology. Besides, different cultural layers of the medical profession, medical schools, and medical students can also influence this process considerably. The last, but not the least, factor of concern is the policy and structural factors working on this picture.

Keywords: Medical Education, Anthropology, Medical Humanities, Global Discourse, Local Experience, Medicine as Institution and Culture