ANTH 111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 23: Bulimia Nervosa, Schistosomiasis, Visible Minority
Medical Anthropology
Subfield of anthropology that tries to understand how social, cultural, biological,
and linguistic factors shape the health of human beings
Application of anthropological knowledge to further the goals of health-
care providers
○
Improving doctor-patient communication in multicultural settings
○
Culturally appropriate health intervention programs
○
Factors related to disease that medical practitioners do not regularly take
into account
○
Draw on ethnomedical knowledge and on theoretical approaches
○
-
Disease, Illness, and Healing
Three questions
What is ethnomedicine?
Study of cross cultural health systems--encompasses many
areas: perceptions and classifications of health problems,
prevention measures, diagnosis, healing (magical, religious,
scientific, healing substances), and healers
□
Western biomedicine--emphasizes technology in diagnosing #
treating health problems related to the human body
□
1)
○
-
Defining and Classifying Health Problems
Western labels ≠ other culture' labels
®
Disease--illness dichotomy
Disease refers to a biological health problem that
is objective and universal
◊
Illness refers to a culturally specific perceptions
and experiences of a health problem
◊
®
Medical anthropologists study both
®
□
First step in ethnomedical research--
Learn how people label, categorize, and classify
health problems
◊
®
Depending on the culture, the following may be bases
for labelling and classifying health problems:
Cause
◊
Vector (means of transmission)
◊
Affected body part
◊
Symptoms
◊
Combination
◊
®
Elders
®
Culture-specific syndromes
Health problems with a set of symptoms
associated with a particular culture
◊
Social factors: stress, fear, shock
◊
Somatization
Process through which the body absorbs
social stress and manifests symptoms of
suffering
}
◊
®
Not just "other"--anorexia nervosa and bulimia
®
Ethno-etiologies: refers to a cross-culturally specific casual
explanation for health problems and suffering
Natural--environment
®
Psychological--emotions like anger and hostility
®
Supernatural--spirits and magic
®
Socioeconomic--tied to structural suffering
Human health problems caused by economic and
political factors such as war, famine, terrorism,
forced migration and poverty
◊
Lack of economic resources, proper sanitation,
health services, social inequalities
◊
Structural factors affect health in many ways
◊
®
□
Approaches to Healing
Private healing
Western biomedicine
◊
Healing of the individual
◊
®
Community healing
Mobilization of community "energy" as a key to
cure
◊
Open, everyone has access
◊
®
Humoral healing
Based on balance among elements within the
body and within a person's environment
◊
Different foods/drugs have "heating" or "cooling"
effects
◊
®
□
Healer and Healing Substances
Healers
Certain people have abilities to diagnose & treat
health problems
◊
5 criteria for becoming a healer; selection,
training; certification; professional image;
expectation of payment
◊
®
Healing substances
Natural or manufactured substances used as
medicines for preventing or curing health
problems
Phythotherapy (plants), minerals, "radon
spas", pharmaceutical medicines
}
◊
®
□
What are the three major theoretical approaches in medical
anthropology?
Ecological/epidemiological approach
Emphasizes the environment; infectious disease,
urbanization and other stressors
®
□
Interpretivist approach
Highlights symbols and meanings in people's expression
of suffering and healing practices
®
□
Critical medical anthropology
Structural factors
®
Social inequality and poverty
®
Cultural critique of Western biomedicine--emphasizes
technology, dehumanizing, western doctor-patient
relationship is a form of social control
®
□
Inequalities and Health
Increasingly focus on social and material conditions
when explaining why variations in health exist across
categories of the population
®
Various forms of social inequality exist related to social
class, gender, ethnicity or racialized status, sexual
orientation, age, etc.
E.g., unequal distribution of income/wealth,
discrimination, lack of access to education and
health care, etc.
◊
®
Differences in health outcomes
Minority groups are more vulnerable
◊
Similar patterns emerge across societies--e.g.,
poor health of Aboriginal peoples in Canada,
African Americans in the US
◊
®
Difficult to ascertain the 'cause' of disease when many
factors come into play, including social, economic,
physical, biological characteristics, demographics, &
lifestyles of people
Risk factors--health-related individual behaviours
or predispositions
◊
Fundamental causes--underlying social
conditions/context
◊
®
Exposure to risks can explain some discrepancies - do
not fully explain differences in life expectancy & health
E.g., housing, access to safe water, diet &
nutrition, & health behaviour explain some health
outcomes, but not all
◊
®
Poor have the highest rates of illness & shortest life
expectancies
21-year difference between the poorest
neighborhood & the wealthiest neighborhood in
Hamilton, Ontario
◊
®
Health problems are particularly prevalent in visible
minorities & racialized groups
®
Related to Social Determinants of Health
E.g., racialized groups more likely to have low
income than other Canadians
◊
E.g., new immigrants may struggle to find
adequate work, housing, services, etc.
◊
®
□
Health Inequalities & Ethnic/Racialized Groups
12 social determinants of health:
Aboriginal status1)
Early life2)
Education3)
Employment & working conditions4)
Food security5)
Gender6)
Health-care services7)
Housing8)
Income & its distribution 9)
Social safety net10)
Social exclusion11)
Unemployment & employment security 12)
®
□
10 Tips for Better Health (What Your Doctor Didn't Tell You)
Don’t be poor1)
Live near good supermarkets and affordable fresh
produce stores
2)
Don't have poor parents3)
Own a car4)
Don't work in a stressful, low-paid manual job5)
Don't live in damp, low quality housing6)
Don't become unemployed7)
Take family vacations and use up all benefits you are
entitled to
8)
Don’t live next to a busy major road or a polluting
factory
9)
Learn how to fill in the complex housing benefit/asylum
application forms before you become homeless or
destitute
10)
□
Add-On's
Graduate from high school and then go on to post-
secondary education
11)
Be sure to live in a community where you trust your
neighbors and feel that you belong
12)
2)
How are health, illness, and healing changing during globalization?
New infectious diseases
new context for exposure
®
□
Diseases of Development
health problems caused by economic development
projects;
®
schistosomiasis
®
□
Medical Pluralism
Presences of multiple health systems within a society
®
Can lead to conflicting models of illness and healing--
leading to misunderstandings between healers and
clients and unhappy outcomes
®
□
3)
Audio 1
Audio recording started: 2:29 PM Thursday, April 6, 2017
Week 13, Lecture 23
Thursday, April 6, 2017
Medical Anthropology
Subfield of anthropology that tries to understand how social, cultural, biological,
and linguistic factors shape the health of human beings
Application of anthropological knowledge to further the goals of health-
care providers
○
Improving doctor-patient communication in multicultural settings
○
Culturally appropriate health intervention programs
○
Factors related to disease that medical practitioners do not regularly take
into account
○
Draw on ethnomedical knowledge and on theoretical approaches
○
-
Disease, Illness, and Healing
Three questions
What is ethnomedicine?
Study of cross cultural health systems--encompasses many
areas: perceptions and classifications of health problems,
prevention measures, diagnosis, healing (magical, religious,
scientific, healing substances), and healers
□
Western biomedicine--emphasizes technology in diagnosing #
treating health problems related to the human body
□
1)
○
-
Defining and Classifying Health Problems
Western labels ≠ other culture' labels
®
Disease--illness dichotomy
Disease refers to a biological health problem that
is objective and universal
◊
Illness refers to a culturally specific perceptions
and experiences of a health problem
◊
®
Medical anthropologists study both
®
□
First step in ethnomedical research--
Learn how people label, categorize, and classify
health problems
◊
®
Depending on the culture, the following may be bases
for labelling and classifying health problems:
Cause
◊
Vector (means of transmission)
◊
Affected body part
◊
Symptoms
◊
Combination
◊
®
Elders
®
Culture-specific syndromes
Health problems with a set of symptoms
associated with a particular culture
◊
Social factors: stress, fear, shock
◊
Somatization
Process through which the body absorbs
social stress and manifests symptoms of
suffering
}
◊
®
Not just "other"--anorexia nervosa and bulimia
®
Ethno-etiologies: refers to a cross-culturally specific casual
explanation for health problems and suffering
Natural--environment
®
Psychological--emotions like anger and hostility
®
Supernatural--spirits and magic
®
Socioeconomic--tied to structural suffering
Human health problems caused by economic and
political factors such as war, famine, terrorism,
forced migration and poverty
◊
Lack of economic resources, proper sanitation,
health services, social inequalities
◊
Structural factors affect health in many ways
◊
®
□
Approaches to Healing
Private healing
Western biomedicine
◊
Healing of the individual
◊
®
Community healing
Mobilization of community "energy" as a key to
cure
◊
Open, everyone has access
◊
®
Humoral healing
Based on balance among elements within the
body and within a person's environment
◊
Different foods/drugs have "heating" or "cooling"
effects
◊
®
□
Healer and Healing Substances
Healers
Certain people have abilities to diagnose & treat
health problems
◊
5 criteria for becoming a healer; selection,
training; certification; professional image;
expectation of payment
◊
®
Healing substances
Natural or manufactured substances used as
medicines for preventing or curing health
problems
Phythotherapy (plants), minerals, "radon
spas", pharmaceutical medicines
}
◊
®
□
What are the three major theoretical approaches in medical
anthropology?
Ecological/epidemiological approach
Emphasizes the environment; infectious disease,
urbanization and other stressors
®
□
Interpretivist approach
Highlights symbols and meanings in people's expression
of suffering and healing practices
®
□
Critical medical anthropology
Structural factors
®
Social inequality and poverty
®
Cultural critique of Western biomedicine--emphasizes
technology, dehumanizing, western doctor-patient
relationship is a form of social control
®
□
Inequalities and Health
Increasingly focus on social and material conditions
when explaining why variations in health exist across
categories of the population
®
Various forms of social inequality exist related to social
class, gender, ethnicity or racialized status, sexual
orientation, age, etc.
E.g., unequal distribution of income/wealth,
discrimination, lack of access to education and
health care, etc.
◊
®
Differences in health outcomes
Minority groups are more vulnerable
◊
Similar patterns emerge across societies--e.g.,
poor health of Aboriginal peoples in Canada,
African Americans in the US
◊
®
Difficult to ascertain the 'cause' of disease when many
factors come into play, including social, economic,
physical, biological characteristics, demographics, &
lifestyles of people
Risk factors--health-related individual behaviours
or predispositions
◊
Fundamental causes--underlying social
conditions/context
◊
®
Exposure to risks can explain some discrepancies - do
not fully explain differences in life expectancy & health
E.g., housing, access to safe water, diet &
nutrition, & health behaviour explain some health
outcomes, but not all
◊
®
Poor have the highest rates of illness & shortest life
expectancies
21-year difference between the poorest
neighborhood & the wealthiest neighborhood in
Hamilton, Ontario
◊
®
Health problems are particularly prevalent in visible
minorities & racialized groups
®
Related to Social Determinants of Health
E.g., racialized groups more likely to have low
income than other Canadians
◊
E.g., new immigrants may struggle to find
adequate work, housing, services, etc.
◊
®
□
Health Inequalities & Ethnic/Racialized Groups
12 social determinants of health:
Aboriginal status1)
Early life2)
Education3)
Employment & working conditions4)
Food security5)
Gender6)
Health-care services7)
Housing8)
Income & its distribution 9)
Social safety net10)
Social exclusion11)
Unemployment & employment security 12)
®
□
10 Tips for Better Health (What Your Doctor Didn't Tell You)
Don’t be poor1)
Live near good supermarkets and affordable fresh
produce stores
2)
Don't have poor parents3)
Own a car4)
Don't work in a stressful, low-paid manual job5)
Don't live in damp, low quality housing6)
Don't become unemployed7)
Take family vacations and use up all benefits you are
entitled to
8)
Don’t live next to a busy major road or a polluting
factory
9)
Learn how to fill in the complex housing benefit/asylum
application forms before you become homeless or
destitute
10)
□
Add-On's
Graduate from high school and then go on to post-
secondary education
11)
Be sure to live in a community where you trust your
neighbors and feel that you belong
12)
2)
How are health, illness, and healing changing during globalization?
New infectious diseases
new context for exposure
®
□
Diseases of Development
health problems caused by economic development
projects;
®
schistosomiasis
®
□
Medical Pluralism
Presences of multiple health systems within a society
®
Can lead to conflicting models of illness and healing--
leading to misunderstandings between healers and
clients and unhappy outcomes
®
□
3)
Audio 1
Audio recording started: 2:29 PM Thursday, April 6, 2017
Week 13, Lecture 23
Thursday, April 6, 2017
Document Summary
Subfield of anthropology that tries to understand how social, cultural, biological, and linguistic factors shape the health of human beings. Application of anthropological knowledge to further the goals of health- care providers. Factors related to disease that medical practitioners do not regularly take into account. Draw on ethnomedical knowledge and on theoretical approaches. Study of cross cultural health systems--encompasses many areas: perceptions and classifications of health problems, prevention measures, diagnosis, healing (magical, religious, scientific, healing substances), and healers. Western biomedicine--emphasizes technology in diagnosing # treating health problems related to the human body. Disease refers to a biological health problem that is objective and universal. Illness refers to a culturally specific perceptions and experiences of a health problem. Learn how people label, categorize, and classify health problems. Depending on the culture, the following may be bases for labelling and classifying health problems: Health problems with a set of symptoms associated with a particular culture.
