ANTHROP 1AA3 Lecture Notes - Medical Anthropology, Biomedicine, Ethnomedicine
23 Apr 2013
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Document Summary
Ethnomedicine used to be the study of cross-cultural health systems which has been a focus of research. Health system includes: perceptions and classifications of health problems, prevention measures, diagnosis, healing (magical, religious, scientific, healing substances), and healers. In 1960 -> ethnomedicine referred only to non-western health systems (a. k. a. primitive medicine) Contemporary western biomedicine (wbm) a healing approach based on modern western science hat emphasizes technology in diagnosing and treating health problems related to the human body. Medical anthropologists study wbm as a cultural system intimately bound to western values. Thus, the current meaning of the term ethnomedicine encompasses health systems everywhere. Western labels don"t correspond to the labels in other cultural. Illness culturally specific perceptions and experiences of a health problem. The first step in ethnomedical research is to learn how people label, categorize, and classify: knowledgeable elders are the keepers of ethnomedical knowledge pass it down through health problems oral traditions.
