Medical Anthropology Midterm

Overview of Canguilhem’s ideas

health is relative, perfect health is impossible, disease vs pathological

Canguilhem’s idea of disease

does not equate to an anomaly. When you become aware of an anomaly, it is then a disease

what determines what is an anomaly vs disease vs normal for Canguilhem

the environment

according to Canguilhem, what happens when people cannot adapt to their changing environments?

it becomes pathological

who wrote the Zonbi/Zombie story?

Hurston

what question does Hurston’s Zonbi story discuss in response to Canguilhem

who has the power/resources to adapt to change

what does Zombie represent

dispossession, precarity due to politics

criticisms of Canguilhem’s ideas of health

notions of personhood vary across social contexts, people may not want to adapt or see it as unhealthy, we want to be aware of when disease is produced

The body-self

not the same as the individual, high personal and moral autonomy

cartesian approach

binaries of mind/body, culture/nature, self/society

are cartesian binaries universal

no

example of how Cartesian binary is not universal

codependency and alchol abuse in the U.S where wives/girlfriends make significant other male go to AA

social body

body as a symbol of and for the collective

example of the social body

Cameroon sees having more sex as creating a male baby and less sex as female

body politic

control over a body and bodies

example of body politic

disease rumors rise in periods of high sociopolitical tension

biosocial differentiation

biological and social life co-constituted

challenge for global health

the same biomedical technology is understood/used differently in different contexts

culture/culturalism

says that a patient’s culture is the problem

biomedicine role

product and producer of culture

why are bodies not the same everywhere

they have adapted to different environments

eugenics

has ideas of of superior/inferior people (not biomedicine and culture)

who wrote about the body and body-politics, the social body, etc.

Lock and Hughes-Scheper

who wrote about biomedicine as a result and producer of culture

Lock and Nguyen

Kleinman - illness

experience of suffering

Kleinman - disease

interpretation of suffering by healthcare provider

Kleinman - sickness

macrosocial aspects of suffering; distinction between sick person and patient

Kleinman toolkit

interpretive

interpretive toolkit

focuses on meaning to a person and provider within a social context

Kleinman’s explanatory model

collaborative interpretation by patient, provider, and family members to elicit illness narrative

medicalization

moral, social, and political problems narrow into technical problems and questions like “How should I treat this patient?”

Farmer toolkit

critical

critical toolkit

seeks to explain suffering by looking at its distribution

structural violence

historical, political, and social forces dictate suffering and choice

what does Farmer argue

structural violence does not equal cultural difference

what does farmer see as the most important aspect of structural violence

poverty

Farmer ideas

“stupid death”, structural violence, poverty, suffering

Holmes ideas

suffering slot, savage slot, poverty porn, white savior narrative

savage slot

focus on the exotic other as defined by the West (Hurston didn’t want to put zonbi into this slot)

what does Holmes say about suffering

don’t predetermine suffering, see the suffering as political agents

Fuentes toolkit

biopsychosocial

how does medical anthropology see racism

a form of structural violence

what does Fuentes emphasize

co-constitution of biological and social life in an environment

naturenurtural

life is not wholly determined by either biology or society

how do anthropologists informally use race as?

proxy for biological and genetic variation, proctor culture and social behavior

race definition

set of features that defines one group of people as consistently different from other groups

where is majority of human variation

within populations not races

where is there more variation than all other populations

within African populations

what are common visible markers of race actually

adaptations to environment

according to Canguilhem, what is life

a normative activity

technocratic model

sees the body as a machine, a vessel to get from one point to the next, makes women feel like they have more control

holistic model

gives women a more humanized experience, allowing them to work with their babies and not against them

who wrote about the technocratic model and holistic model

Davis-Floyd

one-two punch - first punch

take natural process, make it dysfunctional through technology

one-two punch - second punch

fix the dysfunction with more technology, turning it into a cultural process

who wrote about the sterilization vaccine program

Feldman-Savelsberg

social reproduction

a group can be reproduced or threatened by a birth

what did Bridges have to say on pregnancy

if the state funds your healthcare, does it have the right to manage your health and you?

Foucault’s biopolitics

power to organize and multiply life, to regulate a population

what does TM/HM mean for Bridges?

pregnancy, birth, care, no illusion

how does Medicaid affect pregnancy

it medicalizes poverty and unruly bodies

unruly body

a biological danger to itself, fetus, and society, managed by biomedicine

endogamy

marrying within one’s group, focusing on matrilineal descent

exogamy

marrying outside of a group, socially dilution

what is central to public health

biopolitics

is pregnancy a legal event?

no but it may seem like it since it is subject to the state

what did Mauss discuss?

the exchange of objects builds human relations

three common obligations of gift exchange?

give, receive, and reciprocate

what did Weiner discuss

alienable vs inalienable objects

alienable objects

a new necklace, money - one might cease to own it as some point

inalienable objects

something that can be permanently kept while temporarily given - a museum loaning a painting

who wrote about sharing breastmilk

Reyes-Foster

good mother

feeds naturally (breast milk) and manages risks to the baby; baby grows reciprocates by growing up as mom wants and taking care of good mother when she is old

what kind of object is breastmilk

inalienable

breast is best

mothers should give their babies natural breastmilk and it gives mom and baby better outcomes

fed is best

babies need to be fed whether that be by breastmilk or formula or milk bank or powder milk

what does breast is best prioritize

baby as a technocratic model

what does fed is best prioritize?

mom and baby in holistic model

dry nursing

feeding a baby without providing their own breastmilk

wet nursing

provide milk/nourishment to baby via breastfeeding

Milkman

discusses movements that result from young people being tired of waithood

Honwana

discusses waithood as a result of poverty and inequality, more holistic, socio-political

WHO definition of health

state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity

Fallon and Karlawish on health

not absence of disease but process of managing risk and disease

inherent health

assumes most people are healthy at their core and illnesses are temporary interruptions

inherent illness

illness is part of life and managing it is the goal

Dumit ideas

inherent illness, proto-disease, diagnostic creep (Kramer), pharmaceuticalization

proto-disease

making risk equate to a disease - pre-hypertension (having a risk of having hypertension)

diagnostic creep

disease definitions are widening and more risk categories are becoming a disease that needs treated

pharmaceuticalization

the process by which a condition is deemed to be in need of treatment

Dumit on health

not homeostatic, changing, risk factors

public health

state-run projects within a nation

international health

post-WWII, community of nations, focus on one disease (malaria), experts, disease leads to poverty, magic bullet

global health

late 20th, emphasis on public-private, integrated focus on disease, experts + local stakeholders, disease leads to poverty but also structural violence plays a role, control diseases

who discussed public health, international health, and global health

Cueto

who wrote about protest psychosis

Metzl

protest psychosis

clinical and popular perception of schizophrenia as more prevalent among what studies call as African-American men and black men

clinician bias

before a clinician steps into a room, they are already more biased to believe that black people are more likely to have schizophrenia (and other “black” diseases like Sickle cell)

what was schizophrenia in 20th century associated with

emotional splitting and non-violent often white feminine neurosis

Progressive era

period of social reform to make state institutions accountable and compassionate