ANTH 341 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Aria, Marxism, Woen
13 Oct 2016
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Engineering metaphor
• A healthy body/person is a well tuned machine
• Optimum health is measured by the normal structure and function of the body
• “tudig the ahie’s respose to disease ould eale phsiias to iteree i the ourse of
disease
• The body can be protected from disease by primarily chemical and physical intervention
BUT
• It is flawed.. as in we are narrowly seeing health as just biological and ignoring the
cultural/environmental causes. Essentially, Health has improved because we become ill less
often, not because we have developed better ways of dealing with the occurrence of disease
Paleopathology
The study of Ancient Disease.
Patheopathology provides a broader understanding of the relationship between disease and the
human population and the biocultural adaptations which occur as a result
o As humans evolved we altered our interactions with pathogens in the environment
Hypoplasia
Incomplete or underdevelopment of a bodily tissue or organ. Usually refers to an inadequate
amount of cells
Wear and tear hypothesis
Theory which suggests that the effects of aging are caused by damages to the body systems
which occur over time. Once systems wear out they cease to function leadig to a idiidual’s
premature death.
Individuals die earlier because they are inflicted with some sort of illness which acts upon them
until death.
Periosteal reactions
The formation of new bone in response to injury or stimuli in the surrounding periosteum
surrounding the bone. Requires an x-ray to observe growth
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Plasticity
• the ailit of a orgaiss, iludig humans, to alter themselves – their behaviour or even their
biology – i respose to hages i the eiroet
• Plasticity is an essential part of our existence as generalists that can adapt and live in a variety of
environments
• Example: range in height between dutch and costa Ricans due to weather changes or how some
cultures can break down lactose and others cannot
The sickness-healing (SH) adaptation
we have a automatic response to sickness- we care. its a type of sociality.
this is observed even in the very basic primate relatives
our human systems of healing and being sick are elaborations from our non-human primates
cultural and biology emerge together
Ta “ah’s disease(The girl on Grey’s Anatomy had this)
• A fatal autosomal recessive disorder in which harmful quantities of a fatty substance called
ganglioside (GM2) accumulates in the nerve cells in the brain
• The disease takes 2 forms – 1) afflicts infants who die between 2 to 5 years of age, and 2) a rarer
adult onset form
• • People ho are heterozgous do ot get the disease
Cultural approaches in medical anthropology
The role of beliefs= Ethnomedicine and aspects of medicine
o 3 Interconnected domains of Cultural Anth.
Infrastructure: Economics basically (bottom)
Structure: Social Organizations and relations
Superstructure: Ideology and Beliefs (top)
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find more resources at oneclass.com
Biocultural approaches in medical anthropology
In our current era of global capitalism, growing inequalities and poverty, and unacceptably high
levels of strife, hunger, malnutrition, and disease, there is a need for research that links human
biology and health to social, cultural and political–economic dynamics. Biocultural approaches in
medical anthropology can potentially provide a fuller understanding
Sub-fields in anthropology
Archeology
Biological Anthropology (primatology)
Cultural Anthropology: The role of beliefs and ideology
Linguistic Anthropology
Six reasons underlying the myth of race as biology
Rae dates ak to oahs ar here three differet kids of people et off ad populated the earth,
thus desedig their rae of people. This is false eause:
– The concept is based on the notion of fixed types in an unchanging natural world
– Human variation is continuous
– Human variation is nonconcordant – traits tend to vary independently of other traits
– Within group variation is much greater than variation among so-alled raes
– There is no way to consistently classify by race
– There is no clarity as to what race is and what it is not
Determinants of health and illness from an anthropological perspective
Moder ediie has’t atuall ee as helpful toards ireasig life epeta or dereasig
disease. The availability of humans to better living conditions and better nutrition has been the biggest
factor in increasing health. Illness then, is the lack of these conditions, with your cultural area/beliefs etc
affecting the determinants of health and illness the most.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
But: it is flawed as in we are narrowly seeing health as just biological and ignoring the cultural/environmental causes. Essentially, health has improved because we become ill less often, not because we have developed better ways of dealing with the occurrence of disease. Patheopathology provides a broader understanding of the relationship between disease and the human population and the biocultural adaptations which occur as a result: as humans evolved we altered our interactions with pathogens in the environment. Incomplete or underdevelopment of a bodily tissue or organ. Usually refers to an inadequate amount of cells. Theory which suggests that the effects of aging are caused by damages to the body systems which occur over time. Once systems wear out they cease to function leadi(cid:374)g to a(cid:374) i(cid:374)di(cid:448)idual"s premature death. Individuals die earlier because they are inflicted with some sort of illness which acts upon them until death.
