No Class Wednesday (Description of Oxford System)

So today I don't have any class which is great, however, I have endless amounts of reading to do but I wanted to stop and write a little blog explaining my educational system here at Oxford so that it maybe makes a little bit of sense (very hard to actually make sense of though). So each week I have lectures, seminars, tutorials, and group discussions. These are all different environments of learning however, they are all incorporated into the greater learning objective. A lecture is similar to what you would find in the states, a specific topic is explained for about an hour by one of the professors in a lecture room. There are three different supervisors in my program and each of them teach different lectures during the week. With each lecture there is a coinciding reading list with between 20 and 40 readings of books, articles, and journals to gain more information on the specific subject. Separate from the lectures are what are called seminars. These seminars do not specifically pertain to the course but are usually organized by course lecturers and so typically correlate to some sort of course material. Seminars are talks from researchers, lecturers, field workers, or any other people of respected position who come and discuss there field of study with the class. Some seminars are out of this world incredible, such as the one I will discuss shortly, and some others are morbidly boring or just fly way over your head. Lastly there are what are called tutorials, this is the difficult part of the Oxford system. Each week a 2000-2500 word essay is due on Tuesday evening to a lecturer on a particular topic given to you with a list of readings the week before. This essay is then read by your tutor and the following Thursday discussed by you, your tutor, and one or two of your peers. Typically you are asked to defend your arguments and talk about what you read, how you felt about it, and in general explain your failures (AHH!!). But its not bad because the essays aren't for a grade they are merely a reference point for the tutors to examine how the material is saturating the class and an opportunity for students to be applying the education and really diving into the material. So far I have loved this system but to fully grasp the greater central Oxford learning system you should also know that as an Oxford student you are allowed and encouraged to attend any lecture or seminar by any lecturer in any field of study. So if you have a free hour and want to learn a little about Freudian thought, or Latin American political theory, or quantum mechanics....(nah) you can. Which is really cool to me, I have been searching for some interesting lectures and am really excited about a seminar I found called: Crisis of a Wasteful Nation, Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Era. But I have also found some interesting lectures on social policy, international development, history of medicine, and political theory. There is so much to learn and so little time to do it in. But I'm trying to stay on top of all my medical anthropology reading, which brings me to my next point (long blog sorry).
During my seminar Monday I was introduced to the very interesting and thought provoking topic of sex-selection in India. I wanted to talk about it in the blog because whenever people ask me what I'm studying at Oxford I tell them Medical Anthropology and they proceed to ask, What exactly is that? So instead of trying to define the field of medical anthropology and butcher it tremendously I will simply give you an intricate example of what medical anthropology is and the importance of this knowledge to public health among other things. On Monday we were spoken to by Dr. Maya Unnithan of Sussex University on her specific field work and study of fetal sex-selection in India. This refers to a growing trend in Indian society to abort the female fetus upon ultrasound information confirming its sex. This has been found to occur mostly in middle class educated individuals as well as in lower class demographics and across multiple urban regions of India. The motivations as observed by Dr. Unnithan are myriad and complicated but certain driving forces include the social distinction given to fertile women especially when pregnant, the knowledge of a poor quality of life for the child once born, pragmatism of economics associated with the investment of a child, and the need for a male child to be born in order to pass wealth and heritage. Each of these motivations are incredibly intricate upon deeper discussion. Within the women there is little moral guilt or remorse associated with the abortion because this is a cultural norm that has cultivated in the society. Many women feel that the quality of life available to the child is so hard and difficult for women that they are doing the right thing by aborting. Further, the pragmatism of the issue is seconded by the thought of how parents of a daughter will pay the dowry necessary for their child to marry into a family. These are all cultural constructs that complicate a medical issue. Looking to the doctor's perspective, many physicians see their actions as in the best interest of the child. They feel that it is better to end the suffering now then have a child die of neglect down the road or worse have the mother go to a back alley abortion clinic risking her own life to end the pregnancy. Furthermore, the government of India seeking to enter the global scene must sign various human rights agreements to be considered on the same level of development as other global nations. However, they also see the population control issues of China and implicitly know that the cultural abortion practices in their country are in a way controlling the enormous growth of the country. I have attempted terribly to skim the surface of a difficult and complex issue that is taking place in India. However, I do feel that it is a perfect description of the importance that medical anthropology plays in this world. Understanding health in a population is inextricably linked with the interplay of culture, society, religion, politics, and ecology. If you are really interested in learning a little bit more about this topic you should google scholar Dr. Unnithan's essay entitled:

Female selective abortion - beyond 'culture': family making and gender inequality in a globalising India

My description of this issue does no justice to her descriptions of field work so if your interested please read.