Illness and Healing Flashcards
medical anthropology
subfield of cultural anthro
study: health, disease, illness, sickness as a culturally mediated process
adopt a bicultural approach to health
disease
injury or error that impairs the function of biological systems
illness
the subjective experience of symptoms
-motivates changes in behaviour to alleviate discomfort
sickness
a social role
may be stigmatized, disbelieved, or dismissed
arthur Kleinman
a medical anthropologist who worked with WHO, in hospitals to understand responses to health
-argues that medical doctors often ignore or misunderstand roles of culture in shaping illness
talcott parsons
“sick” role
- we have expectations of sick people: gross, in bed, and coughing
- hard time with mental illness, because people don’t show these symptoms
healing
to retore health
healing system
Perceptions and beliefs about the body
theory of disease (classification of health problems and their causes )
prevention measures
Identity, recruitment and practice of healers
how healers become healers
they are born to it selected by ascribed tribes
-lineage
-identified based on supernatural signs
selected based on acquired/demonstrated attributes
biomedicine
- allopathic
- conceptualizes disease as damage to tissue
- focus: identifying and treating biological causes of disease
biomedicine is culturally situated
strives for an objective understanding of disease cause and treatment through the scientific method
Scheper Hughes and Lock
3 bodies to consider when analyzing health and disease
- individual bodies-biomedicine privileges this
- social body-how cultures shape health
- body politic- how social or political forces exert control over bodies and in some cases medicalizing conditions
western conceptions of bodies, illness and health
individual body as a primary site for disease/enmeshed in society
mind/body dichotomy: mind and body are one
body/environment dichotomy: sick environemnt=sick people
scientific/superstition: spiritual and emotional wellness also relevant
