Final Project – Blog Post  (35 points possible) 2000-3000 words. Due by Thursday August  16th 11:59 pm

The objective of this course has been to analyze how gender intersects with cultural models of medicine, sickness, health and the human body across the world. The Western, biomedical model has been placed alongside other models of health (such as Chinese medicine or Ayurvedic medicine from India). As well, you have learned about different gendered health issues from epidemiological, evolutionary, critical, interpretive, and feminist anthropological theoretical perspectives.

For your final blog post, you will choose one of the five theoretical models you learned about in Week One to critically investigate the health topic and country you have chosen to write about this semester. Using this theoretical model, you will delve more deeply into the social, cultural, political (including global politics), and economic determinants of the particular health issue you have chosen. Cite all sources that you use with the author, title, date, pages, and, if a website, the link (see details in the rubric below).

For example, perhaps this semester you have chosen to research the health issue of infant mortality in the country of Senegal. For your final project, you may decide to examine the effects of educating girls on reducing infant mortality in Senegal using a feminist theory approach. In your final post, you will discuss the effects of educating girls on reducing infant mortality in Senegal, using and citing reputable sources to support your discussion. You might choose to investigate cultural determinants that impede educating girls, for example, the emphasis a family puts on educating boys over girls. You might use a feminist theory approach to critique this emphasis on boy babies over girls and how this emphasis leads to a higher infant mortality rate.

Foundational Sources and other resources:

UNICEF
World Health Organization
UN Women
UN Millennium Development Goals 2015 Final Report
Google Scholar
MSU Library and MSU Librarian Live Chat/Email Service

Grading Rubric for the Final Project Blog Post

Your essay must include these items to receive full points:

• Your post must be between 2000 and 3000 words (5 points)
• You must clearly identify a) your health topic, b) your country, c) the social, political, economic, or cultural determinants that influence your health topic,  and d) the anthropological theory from the Week One Lectures and Readings that you will be using in the introductory paragraph of your post. Your post must have both an introduction and a conclusion  (10 points)
• You must use at least four  sources to support your discussion of your health topic and three sources to support your discussion of your chosen anthropological theory (seven sources in total). You may use any sources you have used  for this  class that might apply. All of the seven sources must be reputable academic sources (5 points)
• You must cite your sources in the body of your post using the author’s name and date inside the sentence,such as: (Claiborne 2015), anytime you introduce new information from a source. At the end of your post, you  must list all the sources you used in the following format: Author Last Name, First Name. (Date of publication). Title of source. Pages. Website if applicable. (5 points)
• You must use the theory you select to discuss from an anthropological perspective the causes of the health issue OR the solution to the health issue you are studying in your country(10 points)