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Uncommon Courses is an occasional sequence from The Dialog U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to educating.
Title in fact:
Anthropology of Hashish
What prompted the thought for the course?
At any time when I taught my medical anthropology course, I observed that college students have been most curious concerning the part of the course that offers with the makes use of of vegetation, fungi and different species for a spread of medical functions. These functions included therapeutic, psychological well-being, ritual and religious awakening, to call a couple of.
As soon as Connecticut, the state the place I work, legalized leisure hashish, I made a decision it was well timed to take the plant part from the unique course and broaden it to a 14-week course of its personal. It was additionally a possibility to introduce college students to the self-discipline of anthropology by a subject I knew lots of them discovered fascinating. I made a decision to give attention to hashish as a substitute of the complete panoply of vegetation and different species, because it was the one plant being legalized within the state at the moment.
What does the course discover?
All through the course, we give attention to the completely different cultural and political significance of hashish in different geographical contexts. We have a look at the illustration of cannabis in art, literature and pop culture, in addition to what the science of cannabis tells us about its impact on health and well-being.
We additionally have a look at the way in which stigma and racism influence hashish customers and producers in the US and elsewhere.
We finish the course with college students writing letters to themselves wherein they think about how the authorized and social panorama for hashish will probably be in 5 years, within the U.S. in addition to globally. I plan to ship them these letters in 2028.
Why is that this course related now?
Whereas hashish has lengthy been part of human existence, the authorized and political panorama of hashish manufacturing is quickly altering. Even when they aren’t hashish shoppers, college students will not less than develop into extra conscious concerning the function that hashish performs in in the present day’s society.
College students might need to know the way they will take part within the enterprise facet of hashish. Or they could be focused on doing analysis on the makes use of and abuses of the plant.
The course additionally affords college students a approach to consider the stigma and discrimination confronted by hashish customers and the way completely different cultural programs outline and deal with behaviors which can be deemed deviant.
What’s a vital lesson from the course?
My fundamental goal is to have college students develop an knowledgeable understanding of hashish as a plant and as a cultural reality. I would like them to strategy the examine of hashish with an open thoughts and to stroll away with a better understanding of how dangerous stigma may be to people in any society. I might hope everybody leaves knowledgeable and fewer inclined to stereotype others.
What supplies does the course function?
We learn passages from anthropologist David Crawford’s “Dealing with Privilege: Cannabis, Cocaine, and the Economic Foundations of Surburban Drug Culture,” which challenges the stereotypes that many white individuals and politicians maintain about drug dealing and in addition explores how medicine grew to become raced and classed entities.
We additionally learn “Understanding and Rebalancing: A Rapid Scoping Review of Cannabis Research Among Indigenous People,” which provides college students a possibility to study extra about Indigenous peoples and cultures alongside studying extra concerning the hashish plant itself.
And we watch “Reefer Madness,” a 1936 movie meant to be a cautionary story concerning the presumed risks of marijuana use.
What’s going to the course put together college students to do?
College students depart the category higher knowledgeable about hashish as a plant and with a greater appreciation for the complexity of “medicine” in society. I consider the category additionally helps college students to develop into extra knowledgeable residents, because the legal guidelines that govern the use and analysis on hashish and different associated vegetation are as a lot a political issue as they are social.
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