Curare. Journal of Medical Anthropology

Curare | Zeitschrift für Medizinethnologie | Journal of Medical Anthropology

Curare is a double-blind peer-reviewed journal of medical anthropology published by the AGEM – Arbeitsgemeinschaft Ethnologie und Medizin (Association for Anthropology and Medicine) since 1978. Articles are published in German & English. The transformation into an open access journal took place in 2024 with the support of the German Research Foundation (DFG), a print version continues to be published by Reimer Verlag Berlin. All issues from 2018 are published online at www.curarejournal.org. Issues from 1978 to 2017 are freely accessible on the digitalization server of the FID SKA – Specialized Information Service Social and Cultural Anthropology and available at www.evifa.de/curare-journal.

Call for Papers – Curare Teaching Forum 2025 (Special Issue)

We are interested in the following questions:

Why is your favourite text or medium especially suitable for teaching medical anthropology?
What can be demonstrated or discussed particularly well using the text or medium in question?

The format of the texts are open, they could include short essayistic texts, theoretical review articles and personal reviews of many years of teaching experience. Deadline for submissions is November 3, 2025.
For more information and former contributions to the Curare Teaching Forum please visit our Call for Papers site.

Online First

2025

Tobias Becker. Medien und Medizin als Ressourcen füreinander Polio-Schluckimpfung im BRD-Fernsehen der 1960er- und 70er-Jahre

Current Issue

48 (2024) 1+2

Thematic Focus: Gender und Medicine

Edited by Barbara Wittmann & Alena Mathis

The thematic focus “Gender and Medicine” of this Curare issue explores historically shaped and enduring gender imbalances within our medical structures and their influence on our everyday interactions. The assembled articles draw on insights from critical feminist initiatives and the women’s health movement. They ask why people develop different illnesses depending on gender and how these illnesses are dealt with on the basis of specific socio-cultural influences. These contributions trace historical developments and, build-ing on this, they examine current conditions of gender-related power relations. The term ‘gender medicine’ is intended to help bring marginalised perspectives into focus in order to overcome the view of the cis-male body as the medical-pharma-ceutical norm, and to develop a new way to understand and respond to health inequities in clinical care and health services delivery. The articles also reflect (self-)critically on the Eurocentric narrowing of perspectives in order to shed light on the colonial effects of ‘medical expansion,’ effects which have hardly been addressed to date. As the critical contributions in this issue show, ‘gender medicine’ is still a utopia or a ‘non-space’ in many parts of the medical profession. In the ab-sence of a place where medicine is practised in the way the authors and research partners would like to see it, we at Curare are glad to provide at least a space for reflection. We hope that the contribu-tions will help to initiate the further development of medicine towards a more inclusive and equitable project.

Announcements

Call for Papers: Curare Teaching Forum (Special Issue)

2024-01-25

In issue 48(2025)2 of Curare, we will continue our Teaching Forum series in form of a special issue and therefore ask medical anthropologists about the texts, books, films or other media that they like to use in teaching. We are interested in the following questions: Why is your favourite text or medium especially suitable for teaching medical anthropology? What can be demonstrated or discussed particularly well using the text or medium in question?

The format of the texts are open, they could include short essayistic texts, theoretical review articles and personal reviews of many years of teaching experience.

Anyone interested in writing a text in German or English is welcome to contact the editorial board at curareteachingforum@agem.de.

Deadline for submissions is October 20, 2025.

Please find former contributions to the Curare Teaching Forum at the following links:

Eitenberger, Magdalena & Lehner, Lisa 2022. Teaching Multiplicities. Von der Arbeit mit multimedialen Arbeiten. Curare 45, 2: 101–105: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1480/1500
Olarte-Sierra, María Fernanda 2022. On Bodies and Our Own Bodies. Care and Vulnerability When Teaching about Death and Loss. Curare 45, 2: 106–109: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1481/1525.
Betscher, Silke & Falge, Christiane 2021. Kollaborativ und Online Forschen mit Studierenden und Stadtteilforscher*innen in Zeiten von Corona. Curare 44, 1–4: 176–179: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/15860
Wolf, Angelika 2021. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. Die Faszination ethnografischer Fallbeispiele in der Lehre. Curare 44, 1–4: 180–183: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1587.
Irwin, Rachel 2020. Covidography. Teaching Ethnographic Methods in a Pandemic.Curare 43, 1–4: 152–155: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1537.
Jäger, Margret & Wächter, Afsaneh 2020. Teaching Medical Anthropology in Front of the Screen. A Short Essay on Online Teaching With Medical Students During Summer Term 2020 in Austria. Curare 43, 1–4: 156–159: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1538.
Jäger, Margret (2020). Zu Besuch beim Hausarzt. Dr. Perino über die Schulter schauen. In Curare 43, 1–4: 160–162: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1539.
Klinke, Nola; Brown, Shan-Estelle; Althuis, Aj; Mathews, Jana; Namingit, Sheryll; Pieczynski, Jay Rollins; Russel, Emily Rollins & Santiago-Narvaez, Brendaliz 2020. Teaching COVID-19 in a Multidisciplinary Team. Emphasizing Holism and the Relevance of Anthropology.Curare 43, 1–4: 163–67: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1540.
Steigler, Kathrin 2020. Medizinsysteme in Afrika. Kommunikationstheoretische und kulturalismuskritische Perspektiven. Curare 43, 1–4: 168–171: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1541.
Krause, Janina 2020. „The Egg and the Sperm“. Zur Gemachtheit biologischer Wissensbestände über Geschlecht. Curare 43, 1–4: 172–174: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1542.
Wolff, Eberhard, Der Benjamin’sche „Chock“ in der Lehrdidaktik. Curare 43 (2020) 1–4: 175–176: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1543.
Amelang, Katrin 2019. Rayna Rapp’s „Real-Time Fetus“. Aktuell gebliebene Denkanstöße eines feministisch-medizinanthropologischen Blicks auf Ultraschallbilder in der Pränataldiagnostik. Curare 42, 1+2: 91–93: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1631
Keck, Verena 2019. Von balinesischen Heilern zu ART und „cyborgs“. Eine Einführung zur Bandbreite und Relevanz der Medizinethnologie. Curare 42, 1+2: 94–95: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1632.
Park, Sung-Joon. Thinking-with favorite reads in the anthropology of global health and environmental health. Curare 42, 1+2: 96–100: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1633.
Eeuwijk, Peter van 2019. Von Ayahuasca bis Critical Global Health. Wandel und Beständigkeit in der medizinethnologischen Lehre. Curare 42, 1+2: 101–105: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1634.
Rehsmann, Julia 2019. Food for (Students’) Thought. Graphic Novels in der medizinanthropologischen Lehre. Curare 42, 1+2: 106–108: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1635.
Simon, Michael 2019. Arthur E. Imhofs Arbeiten zur Historischen Demographie. In Curare 42, 1+2: 109–112: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1636.
Wöhlke, Sabine 2019. Todo sobre mi madre. Ein Filmtipp für medizinanthropologische und -ethische Lehre zum Thema Organtransplantation. In Curare 42, 1+2: 113–116: https://curarejournal.org/ojs/index.php/cur/article/view/1637