5. Searching for the origin of medical care and welfare:

Through practical education with experiences of local life and change in way of life

Abstract

  I compared the education experiences of cultural anthropology majors and nursing students, with an emphasis on the later, and discuss how the experience of making bamboo musical instruments is effective for revealing the relations among humans, nature, and health. The aim of learning to make bamboo musical instruments for students not specializing in cultural anthropology, such as nursing students, is to encourage thinking about the origin of medicine and welfare from a universal viewpoint more rooted in life. Developing a new method leading to education to maintain “a sense of life” possessed by all people is as important as professional training in medical education. To provide a way of gaining an understanding of “life” through taking part in the activities of life is the role of cultural anthropology.