Biology Program and Anthropology Program Present
Kuru Updated
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium
A Conversation with Shirley Lindenbaum, Professor Emerita of Anthropology CUNY Graduate Center & Rayna Rapp, Professor of Anthropology, NYU
The unraveling of the epidemic of kuru, a neurodegenerative disease, in a remote area of New Guinea, led to two Nobel Prizes in science and a classic ethnography, Kuru Sorcery, by anthropologist Shirley Lindenbaum, who uncovered the role of endocannibalism in this disease's transmission. The revised and updated second edition of Kuru Sorcery provides an opportunity for a conversation about the place of anthropology in an interdisciplinary research project. Rayna Rapp will consider how kuru helped to define the emergence of medical anthropology in the context of multi-disciplinary research. Shirley Lindenbaum will reflect on how the kuru story has been elaborated in popular literature. For more information, call 845-758-6822 x7667, or e-mail [email protected].
Location: Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium