ANTHROP 1AA3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Insomnia, Ethnomedicine, Medical Anthropology
16 Jan 2017
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Document Summary
The study of human health and disease, health care systems, and biocultural adaptation. Ethnomedicine cross-cultural study of health and health care systems. All cultures have a health system: perceptions and beliefs about the body, classifications of health problems, prevention measures, healing/healers. Illness perceptions and experiences of a health problem. Disease biological health problem; universal (e. g. measles) Explanatory models for why we get sick are products of culture. Hippocrates (ancient greek: based the human body as a whole. Based on balance of the humours (4: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, black bile. Channel system: blockage or misdirection of blood, air, feces, & water in the body causes disease. How these travel through the body leads to disease: related to the four humours but caused/lead to different situations. Most sick people excess heat and moisture (fever, sweating, cough) Blood-letting restored balance (removes excess blood to cure your sickness) Miasma: disease comes from the air, natural condition of that region, transferred in smells.
