SOSA 1050Y Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Medical Anthropology, Erving Goffman, Bipolar Disorder

• School: Dalhousie University
• Department: Soc & Social Anthropology
• Course: SOSA 1050Y
• Professor: Laura G.Eramian

Document Summary

Applied anthropology: any use of anthropological knowledge to influence social interaction, to maintain or change social situations, or to direct the course of cultural change. There is a refusal of the distinction between the two because it is argued that all work is applied (engagement through fieldwork) Anthropologists know that people see the world through multiple perspectives; they are concerned with fundamental relationships of ordinary people (micro-level interactions) Understanding social problems and seeking solutions: insights from medical anthropology. Medical anthropology: the branch of anthropology devoted to the cross-cultural study of health, sickness or healing. Interactions and conflict between western medication and other forms of healing. Social and economic inequality and the effects on people"s health (shapes their risk) Western culture thinks of health in a scientific matter (diagnosing and treating disorders of the body); however the distinction between biological disease and the social experience of illness is very different cross-culturally.