Midterm

Question 1

Disease

Answer 1

An alteration of physiology such that the function of a given physiological system is compromised.

Question 2

adaptability

Answer 2

Shortest term, nonheritable physiological changes that occur in individuals when they are confronted with immediate challenges to their survival

Question 3

adaptations

Answer 3

A trait that confers some survival or reproductive advantage

Question 4

Armchair Anthropologist

Answer 4

When a scholar sits in his office and reads other peoples work and comes up with theories and ideas without ever acutally going into the field.

Question 5

biocultural perspective

Answer 5

A perspective that considers the social, ecological and biological aspects of thelath issues, and importantly, how these intersact thin and across population and over evolutionary time.

Question 6

biological normalcy

Answer 6

The assumption that all human biologies resemble those of one group. Historically European biology has been considered the “norm” for the species, and hence the “normal” type of biology. Others are hence “abnormal”.

Question 7

Biomedicine

Answer 7

The form of medicine that developed out of the scientific tradition in eighteenth-century Europe. It views disease as having a unique biological cause within the body

Question 8

critical medical anthropology

Answer 8

An analysis of how power differentials affect health

Question 9

Cultural Relativism

Answer 9

The evaluation of other cultures most not be in relation to another judged superior (which had often been Western civilization), but rather cultures must understood or “Made sense of” on their own terms.

Question 10

Culture

Answer 10

The beliefs, values, practices, and traditions of behavior of a group.

Question 11

enamel hypoplasia

Answer 11

Bands of thin enamel in theeth indicate periods of growth disruption. Can be used to ascertain the relative duration of the growth stoppage, with wider bands indicative of more prolonged disruption compared to thinner bands, which indicate a shorter period of growth stoppage. Placement of bands also provides insight into the age at which the growth disruption occurred.

Question 12

environment of evolutionary adaptation

Answer 12

The environment in which important aspects of an organism’s evolution occurred, and hence the enviroment to which they are best adapted.

Question 13

Ethnocentrism

Answer 13

having or based on the idea that your own group or culture is better or more important than others

Question 14

Ethnomedicine

Answer 14

Healing traditions of a given culture.

Question 15

Ethnopharmacology

Answer 15

The study of indigenous medicines

Question 16

Eugenics

Answer 16

a science that tries to improve the human race by controlling which people become parents

Question 17

fitness(in the context of evolution)

Answer 17

Reproductive success

Question 18

Functionalism

Answer 18

a theory that stresses the interdependence of the patterns and institutions of a society and their interaction in maintaining cultural and social unity

Question 19

Great Chain of Being

Answer 19

a belief that all creatures and nature are organized in a hierarchal manner, from god all the way down to inanimate objects like a rock.

Question 20

Harris lines

Answer 20

Horizontal bands visible on the long bones that indicate periods of growth stoppage and an apporoximation of the age at which growth was disrupted.

Question 21

Health

Answer 21

The World Health organization defines health as “a state of complete social, psychological, and physical well-being>” what constitutes health of a “Healthy” state is variable cross-culturally.

Question 22

Humoral medicine

Answer 22

medical understanding of the body as a set of humors that need to be in balance for health to be maintained

Question 23

Illness

Answer 23

a disease or period of sickness affecting the body or mind

Question 24

interpretive approach

Answer 24

The attepmt to understand medical systems, health, and disease strictly within their cultural contexts

Question 25

macronutrients

Answer 25

a chemical element or substance (as protein, carbohydrate, or fat) required in relatively large quantities in nutrition

Question 26

Medicaliztion

Answer 26

The Defining of a condition as a disease or a condition in need of medical surviellance.

Question 27

micronutrients

Answer 27

an organic compound (as a vitamin) essential in minute amounts to the growth and health of an animal

Question 28

Morbidity

Answer 28

Disease or the symptoms of disease

Question 29

Mortality

Answer 29

Death

Question 30

nocebo effect

Answer 30

The causation of sickness(or death) by expectations of sickness(or death) and by associated emotional states

Question 31

Participant Observation

Answer 31

The Participation in, yet detached observance of, a group’s behavior that is the hallmark of ethnographic feildwork

Question 32

placebo effect

Answer 32

Improvement in the condition of a patient that occurs in responcse to treatment but cannot be considered due to the specific treatment used.

Question 33

Secualar Trends

Answer 33

a long-term historical trend in some variable. Increases in height and wieght over the twentieth century are examples of secular trends

Question 34

sick role

Answer 34

A socially recongnized set of different expectations for individuals with a socially recognized disease or illness.