ANTH 227 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Biomedicine, Reductionism

• School: McGill University
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTH 227
• Professor: Sandra Teresa Hyde

Document Summary

Medical students learn to see illness in physical bodily terms: biologically, emotionally, a leg had such a different meaning with the skin off. The way we see is it cultural: is something as natural as sight taught to us, learning to see also includes learning to see in a hierarchical level. Ritual of charting: what does it mean to turn a human being into a chart of facts, powerful ways of acting what you chose to put down on the chart will affect further action. Biologically reductionistic: divided in binaries, hard vs. soft. Monothetic/monotheistic: hard time dealing with medical pluralism in comparison to medical systems around the world. Disenchanted removes responsibility, morality: removes spirituality, medicine is a test of competence, body parts do not have souls, removes the story the narrative. Professionalized, bureaucratized: care as a commodity, industrial logic, going to the doctor is like going to a factory, where you become a product on an assembly line.