Anthropology 2 Final Exam Study Guide Flashcards

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering the core concepts of Medical Anthropology, Globalization, and mental health in China as presented in the study guide.

Medical Anthropology

The study of human health, illness, and healing systems across different cultures, political landscapes, and economic systems.

Disease

A purely biological condition involving the malfunctioning of organs or physiological systems.

Illness

The cultural and psychological experience of being unwell, including how the patient, their family, and their community make sense of it.

Biomedicine

Western scientific medicine, viewed by anthropologists as a cultural system with its own biases, rituals, and strict behavioral codes.

Qaug dab peg

The Hmong term for epilepsy, meaning "the spirit catches you and you fall down," viewed as both a dangerous condition and a spiritual blessing.

Tvix neeb

A Hmong shaman who can perform rituals such as soul-calling and animal sacrifices to heal spiritual illness.

Cultural Humility

The willingness of medical professionals to honor a patient's cultural model of illness rather than demanding absolute compliance through institutional force.

Secret War

The CIA recruitment of the Hmong in Laos during the Vietnam War to fight the communist Pathet Lao forces.

VOLAGs

Voluntary resettlement agencies that provided basic sponsorship for Hmong refugees arriving in the United States.

Globalization

The rapid and expanding flow of goods, money, technologies, people, and cultural practices across international borders.

Localization

The process by which a global concept or product is transformed and reshaped by local people to fit specific cultural values and needs.

Neoliberal Economic Policies

Policies such as deregulation and the removal of trade barriers (e.g., NAFTA) that allow multinational corporations to move money and factories across borders.

Containerization

The invention of standardized shipping containers that radically lowered the cost and time required to move cargo worldwide.

Offshoring

The process of moving manufacturing to developing nations where labor is cheap and environmental or labor regulations are rarely enforced.

Rana Plaza

A factory in Bangladesh that collapsed, killing over $1,100$ garment workers, highlighting the human cost of the global fast fashion industry.

Ethnoscapes

The flow of people across borders, including tourists, immigrants, refugees, exiles, and guest workers.

Technoscapes

The global movement of high-tech hardware and mechanical machinery across previously closed borders.

Financescapes

The rapid, volatile movement of mega-money and capital through currency markets and stock exchanges.

Mediascapes

The global distribution of electronic capabilities to produce and spread images and digital narratives.

Ideoscapes

The global flow of political ideas often rooted in Western concepts like "democracy," "human rights," and "sovereignty."

Global Cities

Strategic geographic nodes, such as New York, London, and Tokyo, that serve as command centers for the global economy.

Abjection

A term defined by James Ferguson as the painful feeling of being cast aside from a modern, global world that an individual or region was once a part of.

Global Disconnect

The reality where globalization plugs into specific resource zones while bypassing and disconnecting surrounding human populations.

Knowledge from the South

Localized, generational knowledge from the Global South that reframes climate change as an immediate crisis affecting human survival and sovereignty.

Reimbursable Patient

The digitized version of a patient in Electronic Health Record software that exists as a collection of insurance billing codes to maximize hospital payouts.

Embodied Patient

The actual human being experiencing a unique story of illness, emotional distress, and social reality.

HITECH Act

A $2009$ law where the federal government invested billions to force hospitals to adopt digital Electronic Health Records ($EHRs$).

Tea Art (Chayi)

A practice invented in Taiwan in the $1980\text{s}$ to showcase a distinct, localized Taiwanese identity separate from mainland China.

Wei (味)

A core concept in Taiwanese Tea Art meaning "Embodied Taste," referring to the physical and emotional reaction within the drinker.

Ganshou (感受)

A concept in Tea Art meaning "Resonant Experience," where humans are emotionally or politically moved by sensory experiences.

Bentuhua (本土化)

The process of indigenization or localization, specifically where Chinese therapists restructure Western psychological concepts to fit Chinese cultural values.

Satir Family Therapy

A therapeutic model that treats the family as an interconnected unit, mirroring the Confucian value of relational harmony.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

A structured, task-oriented therapy preferred in China for its pragmatism and similarity to traditional self-cultivation.

Sandplay Therapy

A non-verbal therapy using a sandbox and figurines, which allows patients to protect "face" while expressing their unconscious world.

Therapeutic Governing

A management technique using psychological tools and counseling to manage worker discontent and maintain social stability.

Therapeutic Self

A modern identity where the self is viewed as a private psychological project responsible for exploring inner emotions and healing trauma.

Coltan

A rare earth mineral containing tantalum, crucial for cell phone capacitors, often linked to child labor and armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.