SDG Detail

ANTH1006 - Drugs Across Cultures

None

Project description

Using anthropological and ethnographic studies, this unit focuses mainly on the social and cultural contexts of drug use, both legal and illegal. 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. Students will learn to appreciate the complex ways that drug use is shaped by cultural, historical, economic, and political factors on a global scale. This unit also examines psychological theories of addiction and the neurology of drug use.

Year 2022

Location Australia

Organization Macquarie University

Project aims

Project outcome

1. Demonstrate a basic understanding of the pharmacology of recreational drugs. 2. Describe the physical, psychological and social aspects of addiction. 3. Show familiarity with anthropological and ethnographic approaches to drug use, including the ritual and symbolic aspects of drug use. 4. Describe the impact of broad social, political, and economic forces on drug use and on social perceptions of drugs, including how social perceptions of drugs are influenced by gender, class, and ethnicity. 5. Identify the influence of local, regional, and global factors on drug production and distribution. 6. Apply anthropological knowledge to real world issues and clarify your own position on drugs to be able to make informed decisions about drug policy.