Cultural Anthropology
in the News
Medical Anthropology and Biocultural Approaches
Medical Anthropological Approach
• How can we understand the intersection
between medicine and culture?
• What are the relationships among “disease,”
“illness,” and “wellness”?
• What is the relationship between
“medicalization” v. “somaticization”?
Medical Anthropological Approach
•
Medicalization
• when conditions become categorized
•
Somaticization
• body expressing itself, how the body
experiences itself
Medical Anthropological Approach
 Intersection between medicine and culture is
historically, politically, and economically
constructed.
 Free- Write:
 How do you think history, politics, and
economics plays a role in the health of a
cultural group?
 Differences between western & non-western
cultures?
Medical Anthropological Approach
• Illness
• cultural experience of the “sick role”
• Disease
• Biomedical or scientific construction of “x
condition”
• Wellness
• Some cultures focus on health instead of
“sickness”
Brief History of Medical Anthropology
 1990’s = Critically “applied” medical anthropology
 Ex. Farmer’s work as an MD & anthropologist
 “illness narratives” = your story, your words, your
experience with illness
 2000 = Using anthropological lens as a tool to
examine medical situations as they intersect
 Issues of social justice
 Ethnicity
Medical Anthropology: Cholera
Medical Anthropology:
Cholera
• What is cholera?
• Infectious gastroenteritis
• Transmission - Occurs through
ingesting contaminated water or food
(this is the vector)
Medical Anthropology: Cholera
• Originally endemic to the Indian subcontinent
• Ganges River likely serving as a contamination reservoir.
• The disease spread by trade routes to Russia, then W.
Europe, and finally N. America.
• Cholera
• No longer considered a pressing health threat in Europe
and North America
• Still heavily affects populations in developing countries
Medical Anthropology:
Cholera in Haiti
• Paul Farmer and colleagues:
• identify and treat all those with symptomatic cholera
• make cholera vaccines available through a concerted
effort
• address water insecurity to promote prevention
• strengthen Haiti’s public health system.
• raise the goals for health in Haiti and deliver the
means to achieve them.
Information available at http://anthropologyworks.com/index.php/2010/12/12/five-steps-against-cholera-in-haiti/
Medical Anthropology:
Cholera in Haiti
Medical Anthropology: Nutrition
in Malawi
Medical Anthropology:
Nutrition in Malawi