ANTHROP 1AA3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Heredity, Major Depressive Disorder, Insomnia

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTHROP 1AA3
• Professor: Andrew Wade

Document Summary

Medical anthropology intersection of biology and culture. The study of human health and disease, health care systems and biocultural adaptation. Ethnomedicine a cross cultural study of health and health 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 headache, personal to you at a moment, psychological or spiritual imbalance strongly related to our cultural context. Disease = biological health problem; universal (eg. measles) often at the root of an illness. *important for health professionals to understand the beliefs of other cultures in what they think can cause illness and what is culturally acceptable forms of treatment. Explanatory models for why we get sick are products of culture. Most sick people excess heat & moisture (fever, sweating, cough) Barbers advertised these services with the red and white of their poles.