Theoretical Perspectives on Disease, Health, & Healing? Flashcards
What is the difference between a biocultural & a biomedical perspective of disease?
Biomedical Perspective: Examines the “Proximate” or the immediate cause of some physiological disruption or alterations. Uses biological normalcy as standard reference.
Biocultural Perspective: Investigates the ultimate or more distance or causes of the diseases. Examines the effects of the historical and evolutionary forces on an individual’s health. Behavioural, environmental, or socioeconomic and demographic factors of diseases, such as hygienic practice, climate change, air & water population, population density , poor housing etc. (Wiley & Allen, 2021, p.23)
Define the key concepts of health, disease, illness, and sickness
Health: World Health Organization (WHO) defines “health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”.
Disease: Discrete, natural entity that can be clinically identified and treated by a biomedical health practitioners.
Illness: Subjective experience of symptoms of suffering, sickness or feeling of pain.
Sickness: Often equated with disease, illness, or both.
What is the relationship between Classical Paradigm and the 20th-century paradigm (i.e., biomedicine?
Classical Paradigm: The ancient Hippo-Galenic tradition, represented by heroic medicine or allopathy goes back to 5th century BCE. Rely on supernational causation of ill health rather than biological causation a disease is a punishment from God or the result of Witchcraft.
20th century paradigm: The medical model that began to evolve over the course of the 19th century and became a dominant medical system by the three-quarters of the century.
How does the perspective of biomedicine differ from that of Medical Anthropology in terms of health & healing praxis?
Biomedical Focus: Individual Body Universal body.
Know the disease
Hands-on, even invasive examination
Signs
Identify the cause
Treat the disease
Eliminate the cause, cure
Medical Anthropology: Holistic Approach
Individual person
Body and soul
Body a container of humours and energies
What is Medical Pluralism? Why is it important to medical anthropologists?
Medical Pluralism: The existence and the practice of multiple healing systems within cultures. The co-existence of alternative medicines and biomedicine.
What do alternative and complementary medicine refer to? Describe different types of alternative medicines.
Alternative medicine refers to medical practices that are undertaken to replace standard biomedical practice, as when a cancer patient elects to change specific aspects of his or her diet to fight the disease rather than undergo chemotherapy.
What are the different theoretical perspectives used in Medical Anthropology
What is evolutionary perspective?
Evolutionary theory: a set of well-supported hypotheses that explains how biological systems came about, how they change over time, and how they are maintained.
Examines the relationship between organisms and their total environment (i.e., natural selection)
Draws upon evolutionary theory and the concept of adaptation
Explores the short-and long-term implications for human health of different environments and social and cultural arrangements
What are Ethnomedical systems?
The study of cross-cultural health systems, or the study and comparison of traditional, spiritually based medical practices by different ethnic groups
Explanatory models
Personalistic belief systems: explain sickness as the result of supernatural forces directed at a patient, by either a sorcerer or an angry spirit.
Naturalistic belief systems: explain sickness in terms of natural forces, such as the germ theory of contagion in Western biomedicine or bodily imbalance.
Interpretative Approaches
Interpretative Approaches: the analysis of illness requires that these behaviours be considered in the context of the worldview of individuals’ role within that culture.
Asks how society’s understanding of and responses to diseases shaped by cultural assumptions about such things as the beginning and end of life, the workings of the human organism, and the causes of ill health and misfortune.
Critical Medical Anthropology Perspective
Examines power differentials and their impact on health:
how the distribution of wealth and power and the division of labor affect disease patterns and healthcare access.
Applied Anthropology Perspective
Study health and healing systems as well as solve health problems directly or indirectly.
Major contributions medical anthropologists may have in healthcare settings:
Work in a clinical setting by mediating between a patient’s understanding of their condition and that of the clinician.
Can help both patient and physician to understand each other’s perspectives utilizing explanatory models.
What is healing? How can the efficacy of healing be assessed?
Healing: “to restore health”
Involves a possible myriad of phases or stages through which varying determinations of efficacy may be made, perhaps with ever changing criteria and definitions of efficacy.
Proximate effects: refer to some physical sign that the “curing/healing” process is under way, such as a reduction in fever.
Ultimate effects: the restoration of health, perhaps the complete remission of the disease.
How does culture influence healing?
In almost all cultures specify healing roles that are recognized and legitimized by their members.
Healing may also be mediated by others, such as parents and other kin, spouses and friends.
