Anthropological Approaches to Health
I.
Introduction
A. Review of the Four Subfields of Anthropology:
1. Cultural Anthropology- Concept of culture is central. Edward Tylor
defined Culture as “ A complex whole of shared beliefs, norms,
language, customs, artifacts, etc.”
It is a “way of life”- a shared understanding with patterns of learned
behavior (structured expectations).
Cultural traits are shared, learned.
Cultural Anthropologists seek to describe, understand, and explain the
features of culture.
Note: early studies in Ethnomedicine contributed
to Medical Anthropology (ex. Studies of healing rituals and practices,
and applied studies in international public health implementation,
planned community programs, etc).
Importantly, Anthropologists have improved communication in the
development of projects and new types of health care for communities.
2. Anthropological linguistics
Language usage- Relationship between language and culture (Ex.
Language domains and bilingualism).
Contributed to Medical anthropology by the development of Ethno
science (Ethno semantics).
Attempts to find out how participants categorize their experience
(disease, illness, healing, etc.)
How do groups of people categorize themselves with regards to illness?
3. Archaeology
Reconstructs the life of past cultures by analyzing material remains
(artifacts) and human skeletal remains. Investigates past political, social,
and economic organization of a culture.
Contributes to Medical Anthropology by study of disease and diet among
previous populations.
4. Biological Anthropology (Biological Anthropology, Human
Biology) Used to be called physical anthropology.
Studies of physical diversity, physical origins (evolution of human
species), genetic characteristics of groups, etc.
Recently, biomedical anthropology and bio-behavioral studies have
emerged as subfields of Physical Anthropology.
B. Medical Anthropology- Multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary field that unites
biological anthropology and socio-cultural anthropology in terms of an
evolutionary model.
*Study of human health and disease in a biological, cultural, and environmental
context.
Medical Ecology is a special approach to Medical Anthropology which emphasizes
the environment.
Important Ques?
How do people survive in a particular environment?
How do groups cope with disease?
How do they solve problems that affect health?
Key Concept- Adaptation (The changes and modifications that enable a person or
group to survive in a given environment.)
Medical Ecology stresses the role of the environment and human adaptations to the
environment.
Both the Bio-Medical and Medical Ecological approaches neglect the patientpractitioner dynamics of Ethno-medical system
Ethno-Medical perspective tries to discover and understand and explain the
inhabitants’ viewpoint in analyzing health and systems of healing. (ex. Ethno
pharmacology, Shamanism etc.)
A holistic approach to Medical Anthropology incorporates the biological, sociocultural and environmental factors in multi-variable models.
Exploring the interactive dynamics among them.
Some basic terms:
Bio-Environmental Data:
1. Ecology- the interrelationship between populations and the
environment.
2. Population-refers to organisms of a single species, ex. Human species
occupying a particular habitat.
3. Ecological Niche- specialized roles in the habitat, coexisting species
exploiting different food resources.
4. *Carrying capacity- maximum biomass or size population that can be
supported by the environment.