ANTHRO 104 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Curandero, Medical Anthropology, Urban Anthropology
Document Summary
The study of health, illness, and healing in cultural perspective. Describes healing systems in small scale indigenous societies. Beliefs or practices are related to religious beliefs, rituals, ceremonies. Describes home remedies and the theories behind them in developed countries. Elaborated or codified medical systems found in ancient to contemporary modern europe, india, and china. Why alternative to biomedicine: time constraints language/cultural barriers: cost, not proper papers, afraid of hospitals, alternative is more readily available, don"t believe in biomedicine, alternative better for your individual problem, understanding (communication, sympathetic, cultural, social) The anthropology of food, demography, epidemiology, globalization. Syncretic: catholic religion philosophy and practice joined with indigenous ethnomedical beliefs and practices. Multiple disease and illness etiologies give multiple possibilities for diagnosis, magic, prayer, healing. Personality causation: evil eye, spirit possession, magical spell. A patient might afterward give the healer a gift (e. g. a chicken) Healers generally knew their patients; were often neighbors.
