ANTC61H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Linguistic Anthropology, Medical Anthropology, Participant Observation
Document Summary
Medical anthropologists examine how the health of individuals, larger social formations, and the environment are affected by interrelationships between humans and other species/cultural norms and social institutions/micro and macro politics/forces of globalization. Perceptions of risk, vulnerability and responsibility for illness and health care. Experience of illness and the social relations of sickness. Use and interpretation of pharmaceuticals and forms of biotechnology. Methods: participant observation, community-based participatory research, interviews and focus groups with multiple stakeholders and sectors involved. Applications: change social structures that promote inequality and poor health. How and why people get sick: different understandings and explanations with impacts on sufferers and their care-givers. Healing and health care systems: how different structures and infrastructures affect health status and access to care. How diseases interact with and affect social structures and systems: impacts of/on broader local and global communities don"t blame victims, look to educate them and their care-givers.
