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| Julian Murchison, a native Louisianan, came
to Millsaps following graduate work at the University of
Michigan
and nearly two full years of ethnographic research in southern
Tanzania. As a cultural anthropologist, Julian specializes
in the study of religion, healing, and African cultures.
His primary research concerns the interrelationships between
traditional healing, biomedicine, and Christianity in Tanzania.
Julian has offered a number of different courses in the department,
including Religion, Society, and Culture, Medical Anthropology,
Anthropology of Food and Eating, and Crosscultural Human Sexuality.
In a moment of linguistic confusion, Julian named his dog “Cat.”
Cat is often the subject of class lectures and discussions.
If you want to find out more about Julian’s research,
classes he teaches, or the department in general, feel free
to email him at murchjm@millsaps.edu. He is currently
on sabbatical. |
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| Dr.
Murchison describes his current research projects:
"My general research interests concern
the intersections of religion and healing in East Africa.
From a theoretical perspective, I am most interested in how
illness experiences constitute particularly dense points of
cultural production and how these experiences reflect and
shape other culturally salient experiences.
My primary
research site is a town in southern Tanzania that has grown
in the last hundred years in tandem with a Roman Catholic
mission station founded by Benedictine missionaries. The Roman
Catholic institutions in the town and the surrounding area
are powerful social, cultural, and economic forces. The mission
hospital in Peramiho is perhaps the most well-staffed and
well-equipped hospital in the southern half of the country
and consequently is one of these influential institutions.
In spite of the hospital's influence, however, a large number
of traditional healers also operate in the surrounding area.
Doing
research both at the hospital and with traditional healers
and their patients, I have been able to collect and analyze
numerous experiences and perspectives on illness and treatment.
This research has allowed me to explore the classification
of illnesses into categories of human and Godly illnesses;
the significance of powerful symbols like the x-ray and divination
tools; local senses of place; and a variety of other important
topics. I have recently been writing a lot about the way that
HIV/AIDS fits into and affects these other dimensions of health
and illness in the region. For an example, see my chapter
in the new book Borders
and Healers from Indiana University Press.
Building
on these research experiences, I have also developed a new
research interest in the negotation of tradition and modernity
in an urban law firm in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. I have presented
a couple of conference papers on this topic, and I have found
the opportunity to pursue similar theoretical issues in a
different ethnographic setting very exciting and fruitful."
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Julian's
Course Information and Syllabi:
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Fall 2005
LBST 1000 (07)
– Introduction to Liberal Studies
Syllabus
----- Website
SOAN 3200/RLST 3170 – Religion, Society, and Culture
Syllabus
----- Website
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Fall 2004
SOAN 1100 (01) – Introduction to Anthropology
Syllabus -----
Website
SOAN 4750 (01) – Anthropology of Food
and Eating
Syllabus
----- Website
SOAN 4900 – Senior Seminar in Anthropology
Syllabus
----- Website
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Spring 2004
SOAN 2100: Methods & Statistics
Description
----- Syllabus
SOAN 3300: Health and Illness
Description
----- Syllabus
SOAN 4750: African Anthropology
Description
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Fall 2003
IDST 2400 (04) -- The African Continent:
Arrivals, Departures, and Interactions, 1600-1900 (Core
4)
Description
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SOAN 1100 -- Introduction to Anthropology (Core 6)
Description
----- Syllabus
SOAN 3200 / RLST 3170 -- Religion, Society, and Culture
Description
----- Syllabus
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Spring
2003
SOAN 1100 -- Introduction to Anthropology
(Core 6)
Description
----- Syllabus
----- Review Questions
SOAN 3120 (02) -- Cross-Cultural Human Sexuality
Description
----- Syllabus
SOAN 4770 (01) -- Ethnographic Research and
Writing
Description
----- Syllabus
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