Health and Ethnicity
The state: associated with -• increased food production (agriculture and
industry)
• irrigation and transformation of landscape
• increased population
• fixed territory
• developed market system
• appearance of cities developed urban sector
The state: associated with -•
•
•
•
appearance of bureaucracy
military
usually an official religion
delegation of authority to maintain order
– within and without its borders
• right to control information
• authority is formal and impersonal
– Holding office and the person
The state: associated with -• differentiation in population appears – social
stratification
• appearance of ethnicity
• permanent, heritable inequality
– slaves, castes and classes
• social conflict increases
The State, The Nation, and Ethnicity
• 181 states but 5000 nations?
• idea that nation and state coincide is rare
• The appearance of ethnicity and the rise of the nationstate
• (Nash) nation-state responsible for the rise and
definition of social entities called ethnic groups - last
500 years
– grew out of the wreck of empires, breakups of civilizations disruptions of mechanic societies
– within borders of nation-state - social and cultural diversity
Political Organization and Ethnicity
• ethnicity is founded upon structural inequities
among dissimilar groups into a single political
entity
• based on cultural differences & similarities
perceived as shared
• identification with & feeling a part of an ethnic
group & exclusion from certain other groups
because of this affiliation
The Nation (-State)
• modern nation-state a more recent phenomenon
– most have appeared since the end of WWII
• communities of people who see themselves as “one
people” on the basis of common ancestry, history,
society, institutions, ideology, language, territory, and
(often) religion
• anthropology questions this reality while recognizing
the power of the idea
• differences are suppressed in modern nation-states
NATION & NATIONALITY
• nation was once a term that referred to tribe,
indigenous people, or ethnic group - collectivity
sharing single language, religion, history,
territory, ancestry, kinship (Herder & volk)
• nation comes to mean the state = a country
• a sociopolitical form, the modern state
composed of diverse ethnic groups
Nation as “Imagined Community”
• "it is imagined because the members of even
the smallest nation will never know most of
their fellow members, meet them, or even
hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives
the image of their communion" (Anderson
p.15)
imagined community
• A community that “imagines” itself
– No possibility of face-to-face communication
– Moments of simultaneity
– Language & “print capitalism”
– Monuments and memorials
• Anthropology questions this reality while
recognizing the power of the idea
– Differences are marked and suppressed in modern
nation-states
– A form of amnesia?
The Nation, Social Structure & National
Identity
• based upon sentiments of prestige
– extend deep into the masses of political structures
(located in the field of politics)
• groups who hold the power to steer common
conduct within a polity
– will most strongly instill themselves with this ideal
fervor of power prestige
• Those who think of themselves as being specific
partners of a specific culture diffused among
members of the polity
Assimilation & Nation Building
• increase in shared characteristics among social
groups and an increasing social homogeneity
are a key to nation building
• erasure of differences (in ethnicity, cognitive
orientations, patterns of social interactions, etc.)
for the creation of a cohesive, productive, just
and affluent society
• various communication media assume an
important role in providing information that
facilitates key transformations in individuals and
communities
Pluri-Ethnic States
• Pluralist model treats groups as permanent and enduring
– Group rights
• Cosmopolitan model that accepts shifting boundaries,
multiple affiliations, hybrid identities
– Individual rights
• Accommodation of immigrant ethnicity
• Minority nationalism – nations within (indigenous
peoples and Québécois)
– Stateless nations, ethnic nationalism vs. indigenous groups
• Nations within – groups that formed complete and
functioning societies on their historic homeland before
being incorporated into a larger state
• Typically been involuntary – colonization, conquest, etc.
Ethnic Conflict
• Assimilation
• Apartheid
• Diaspora
• Ethnocide
• Genocide
Health and ethnicity
• Evidence that ethnic or cultural background
influences the meaning people give symptoms
including pain and influences the ways in
which illness and pain are defined and treated
• “conflict” between health care &
social/cultural differences in medical
encounters
• Health disparities & ethnic groups
3 “moments” in health care
•
•
•
•
attempt to define
process of argument & interpretation
contestation over satisfaction
The confounding factor of social differences in
this process
• Marked and unmarked categories
Class and ethnicity
• Pervasive & powerful inverse correlation between
health status and social class
• Reflect social realities that have biological
consequences
• Exposure to health damaging behaviors and
exposure to adverse physical and psychological
conditions
• Increase chances for clinical encounters
• Differential uses of and access to clinical
encounters