Module 13 - Health, Medicine, and Society Flashcards
Medical anthropology
informed by biocultural, interpretive + crit approaches to understanding health
Interpretive med anthropology
how cultural beliefs and perceptions influence peoples health - ○ Interpretive med anth pushes on biomedicine and cartesian dualism to see what is actually going on - considers how cult beliefs and perceptions influence peoples health and treatment of illness -
Biomedicine
biology + physiology to understanding the body - dominant approach to investigating the health and disease of pops in W countries - ‘hard’ science - understanding of healthcare relates to the biomedical approach
§ Engages world through cartesian dualism - mind + body as separate entities - culturally constructed perception of the world
Traditional Chinese medicine
approaches + culture - may imagine many things going on - not just one set of beliefs - reflexology can be another approach - acupuncture, massage, aromatherapy - whatever works, works!
Within medical anthropology, there is this understanding of bodies…
conceptions of the body are not always substantive to med anth - W assumption of mind + body affects both theoretical approaches + research paradigms - affect the way healthcare is planned throughout society -
○ Recognizes that health + illness are deeply intertwined with cultural, historical and social dimensions
Shepherd, Hues and Lock propose 3 things about bodies
□ (1) view as phenomenally experienced individual body - or physical body, considered a given - we all have bodies - bio/psychological extestential reality - an embodied self - seen as singular + personally experienced
® This pov - these play a central role in shaping our personal identities - housing thoughts + emotions + engaging with the world via indiv bodies
□ (2) as a social body - a natural symbol - culture symbolizes and reps our personhood - how body is understood within social contexts - beauty standards, gender roles, cultural practices - engaging with culture
□ (3) the body politic - artifact of social and political control - how the body is controlled by social institutions - an artifact of socio-political control - how bodies are regulated, surveyed, controlled over the lifetime of being -
® Making med anth very political
What is critical Medical Anthropology ?
branch of anth that looks at poli econ of health - the role social inequality plays in peoples lives + engagements with health, illness and death - engages with localized experiences + systemic problems in the world - intersectionality + how it has impacted peoples lives
§ Gives prominence to localized experiences - intersections bw sex, race, gender
§ Can apply to any problem in the world - how does X effect health?
§ See Palestine, how does colonization, war, genocide play in peoples engagements with health? - health is not just what happens with your body
In ANTH, the body is
physical and symbolic artifact both naturally + culturally produced - two work together, simultaneously
Med anth unique view on body due to engagement with suffering - we exist wi these realities - physical, social, emotional matters triggered by illness + suffering - call for a deeper engagement with socio-cultural phenomena - a deeper analysis
Body mapping
for HIV patients - as a methodology - refers to processes of creating visual reps of aspects of peoples lives + their bodies - anth use it to help explore themes of life (soci,poli,econ) + individual embodies experiences + also meanings people attribute to life circumstances - often richly illustrative maps
□ Visual map under the mode of respondent generative image production - drawing + painting as form of communication - study of signs -> use rep via icons etc -> so people unable to verbalize useful capacities of body can use art - meaningful to afford people an ave to express what they think is going on wi their bodies -> collaborative ethnographic method
□ Is unique - in that the body maps themselves create a genuine sense of agency amongst the participants - life-size of the body maps + colour hues - salient + saturated -> able to portray personal stories + evoke lists of memories
Paul Farmer
med anth + physician - dedicate in imp healthcare to worlds poorest people - f PIH (Partners in Health) - prof of medicine + etc - 1992 Haiti, still student - working with dispossessed farmers - work focus on novel community bases treatment strategies - demonstrating high quality healthcare delivery in resource poor healthcare settings
Pioneered - decentralized models of care
Applied Medical Anthropology
one of two dominant approaches in the field of medical anthropology that operates with the goal of improving the health outcomes of a group, usually in collaboration with biomedical health practitioners
bio-cultural approach
Bio-cultural anthropology investigates the complex relationship between biology, culture, ecology, and history. Bio-cultural anthropologists view human biological variability as a function of adaptation to the environment with a specific focus on how socio-cultural environments shape this adaptation
medicalization
the process by which human conditions and social problems come to be treated as illness
theoretical medical anthropology
one of two dominant approaches in the field of medical anthropology that aims to understand the how and why of medical systems in a particular context
Universal Health Care
health care system that provides care and financial protection to all citizens of a particular country. It is organized around providing a specified package of benefits to all members of a society with the end goal of providing financial risk protection, improved access to health services, and improved health
