ANTH 2230 Final: Anth Final Notes.docx

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTH 2230
• Professor: D Rose

Document Summary

There are culturally specific ways of dealing with sickness and solutions to sickness. Understanding these culturally specific things can have practical applications. The body serves as a symbolic expression of social and moral order and ones own position in this order. People use symbolic discourses to express inconsistencies within the cultural ways of dealing with and understanding sickness. Abortion in jamaica goes against the idea of kinship and parenthood yet provides a way out of an ideal situation even though it creates moral and social tensions. Jamaican"s describe their body metaphorically in the same life cycle of fruit. When overripe and rotting they are past their prime, it was firm and good. Soft things are considered to have no use and like rotten things need to be eliminated similar to feces and other wastes. Death and unused sperm must be washed away or they cause sickness. Excessive moisture and dryness are associated with death.