Cultural AnthropologyKatya Wesolowski, Lecturing Fellow of Cultural Anthropology
On February 3, 2020, I walked into my Medical Anthropology class wearing a plague doctor mask to kick off that week’s lecture on epidemics and social transformation. I had bought the mask in Italy during my semester at Venice International University teaching a course on Medicine and Globalization. In Venice, I taught about the bubonic plague or “black death” that decimated European populations from the 1300s-1700s, through the immediacy of history: we looked out of our classroom window to the small island in the lagoon that had been used for (and given the name to) quarantine, and we visited the infamous bocca di Leone, or 15th century “lion’s mouth” stone mailbox to file denunciations against fellow citizens for public health violations.
In Durham, I tried to bring these lessons alive through slides and costume. Then a month later modern day plague doctor masks (albeit not with the elegant long noses for stashing sweet smelling sachets to filter “bad air” and rose-tinted glasses to shield looks from the ill, both believed to be vectors of contagion) became a normalized sight in U.S. supermarkets and streets. And quarantine is now no longer something historically and geographically distant, but right here at home.
The takeaway lesson from my lecture in February was that epidemics and pandemics are never just public health crises. They also are social, political and ethical crises that can render radical transformation in cities, countries and the world. During the bubonic plague, some changes were for the better: Italy saw an expansion of medical knowledge and flourishing of mutual aid societies. And some were for the worse: Italy experienced increased social divisions and xenophobia, as blame for the spread of the plague was placed on marginalized populations including beggars, travelers and Jews. The same is true today of COVID-19 in the U.S. We see the positives: individuals responsibly self-quarantining and social distancing, and neighbors forming response committees to take care of each. And we see the negatives: propagation of fake news and misinformation, Chinese-American children bullied, racists memes, and other forms of shaming and blaming.
As anthropologists, we aim to teach about cultural and social difference while also emphasizing our common humanity. We fight against the harmful ways humans often separate between “us and them.” We can only hope that the Coronavirus pandemic helps bring the world together - we are all susceptible to, and responsible for mitigating, this suffering - rather than further entrenching divides and building walls for self-preservation.