Lecture 1 & 2 - Introduction to Medical Anthropology

Topics: Overview of Medical Anthropology, Overview of Culture, Five Approaches to Medical Anthropology

What medical anthropology studies

human health problems and healing systems in their broad social and cultural contexts

Goal of medical anthropology studies

1. improving therapeutic care in clinical settings and improving public health programs in community settings

2. understanding and improve human health and human health services worldwide

Work done in medical anthropology

1. engage in basic and applied research

2. look back at various case studies

Sciences involved in medical anthropology

biological, social, clinical sciences

4 Field of the Anthropology Science

1. Biological Anthropology (studies the biological and evolutionary aspects of humans)

2. Socio-cultural Anthropology (studies cultural variation among humans)

3. Archaeology (studies past human societies through material remains)

4. Linguistics (studies how language influences social life)

Simplified Definition of Medical Anthropology

Applications of anthropological theories and methods to questions of health, illness, medicine, and healing

Anthropology

Comprehensive study of humankind across all of time and space

What culture is

A system of knowledge, beliefs, patterns of behavior, artifacts, and institutions that are created, learned, shared, and contested by a group of people.

Culture is a guide for….

understanding and interacting with the world around us

Culture ___ and ___ our understanding of the world

shapes and negotiates

Is Culture static?

No; we can push back and fight to change things we don’t agree with

What does culture include?

shared norms, values, symbols, mental maps of reality, material objects, structures of power (media, education, religion, politics, arts)

Culture is learned. What is enculturation

The process by which culture is learned and transmitted across society; often times unspoken and inexplicit

Culture is symbolic. What is a symbol?

Something verbal/nonverbal within a particular language/culture that stands for something else

Why are symbols relevant to culture?

Scholars believe that culture is developed when ancestors learned to use symbols

Culture is shared. What is one example discussed in class about a shared cultural value?

When cowboy movies (an example of media, which is a structure of power) came out, Americans began to develop an emphasis on self-reliance and individual/independent achievement.

How is culture integrated?

Values integrated into different groups help differentiate cultures

Is culture all-encompasing

yes!

Culture is instrumental, adaptive, and maladaptive. What does this mean and what are the nuances?

Instrumental = culture is a useful tool in society, whether it be for organization, survival, comfort, problem solving, or giving life purpose

Adaptive = providing benefit

Maladaptive = causing harm

The nuance is that whatever is deemed adaptive and maladaptive varies by culture.

What are the give approaches to Medical Anthropology?

1. Biological

2. Ecological

3. Ethnomedical

4. Biomedical (aka Studies in and of Biomedicine)

5. Experiential

What is the biological approach to medical anthropology?

It looks at the evolution of disease in human populations over time.

Describe the Paleolithic Age

Hunter-gatherer societies (thus, high level of physical activity); parasites and insect borne illness;

Describe the Neolithic Revolution

plant and animal domestication (more food options); infectious disease rates increasing due to increasing population density, social stratification, etc.

Describe Modern Day

Urban settings; vaccinations; public transportation; antibiotics; improved sanitation;

chronic disease rates increasing (cancer, diabetes, heart disease)

What is Ecology, and what is the ecological perspective of medical anthropology

Ecology is the relationship between organisms and their total environment.

The ecological perspective of medical anthropology focuses on the interactions between environmental context and human health.

Cultural Ecology

examines how cultural beliefs and practices shape human behavior, such as sexuality, residence patterns, which in turn alter ecological relationships between host and pathogens

Political Ecology

Examines the historical interactions of human groups and the effects of political conflicts, migration, and global resource inequality on disease and ecology

ex. many practices are shaped in response to changes in land and property ownership due to government/ruling/land allocation rules

Explain Malaria in terms of cultural ecology

People in Sardina avoid areas with mosquitos to avoid getting bitten (host = humans; pathogen = mosquito)

What is the ethnomedical perspective of medical anthropology? Why is it important?

beliefs and practices related to healing; all societies have unique ways to treat and interpret sickness

ethnomedicine was a main starting point for medical anthropology

What are the two categories of health systems? Describe them

Personalistic: explains sickness as a result of supernatural forces at a patient, either by forcing sorcery or angry spirit

Naturalistic: sickness in terms of natural forces; Western Biomedicine & Germ Theory, imbalance of humans in China, Indian Ayurveda, Meditteran systems

***These systems can merge and modernize

What is the biomedical perspective of medical anthropology?

intersections of public health, biotechnology, and genetics

What is the experiential perspective of medical anthropology? Who and what played large role in this?

Talks about illness through 3 distinct lenses, mainly focusing on the holistic patient experience.

Arthur Kleinman and his book The Illness Narratives played a large role in this field!

What are the three aspects of illness? Explain them all.

1. Narrative: stories people tell about their illness

• Kleinman states the stories people reveal about the illness shows many things, such as how they cope with it (treatments, people), their attempt to reconstruct themselves, etc.

2. Experience: The way people feel, perceive, and live with illness

3. Meaning: The way that people make sense of their illness, often linking their experience to larger moral questions.