ANTHROP 1AA3 Lecture Notes - Insomnia, Microorganism, Cultural Anthropology
12 Feb 2013
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Ethnomedecine: cross cultural study of health and health systems: what is a health system? > it helps people understand why we get sick. Prevention measures: explanatory models for why we get sick are products of culture, hippocrates (ancient greek) contributed to an idea of balance. Based on balance of the humours (elements of the body) Body should be treated as a whole, an integrated system. Four humours: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, black bile. Phlegm: considered to be characteristic of a sluggish person. Red and white symbol of the barber: mot sick people: excess heat and moisture (fever, sweating, cough, blood-letting restored balance. Important aspect of latin-america folk medical practice: emphasis on a body in balance. Germ theory of disease: different diseases caused by different germs. Disease cause by damage to tissues: microscope innovations, pasteur: founder of microbiology, koch: responsible for the idea of disease specificity. Helped science to understand that a certain organism was responsible for a certain type.
