HLTA02H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Biomedicine, Social Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
CHAPTER 5: SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND HEALTH
WARWICK ET AL.
What is social anthropology?
ā¢Social Anthropology: is the study of all aspects of society from a cross-cultural perspective!
ā¢Historically emerged as the study of the diļ¬erent and exotic otherā with researchers
studying non-western societies, cultures, and social worlds perceived as diļ¬erent to the
western developed world e.g some societies believed in witchcraft!
ā¢Contemporary anthropology is concerned with western cultures as it is with exotic others!
ā¢Medical Anthropology: sub-disciplineā concerned with studying patterns of human
health, sickness and death by considering both biological and cultural factors!
ā¢Concerned with: the experiences and practices of health, illness and healing in diļ¬.
Social and cultural contexts. !
ā¢ie. MA have researched native African and asian medicines, local critiques of
professional healing systems etc!
ā¢Ethnography: studies have demonstrated that illness and medical care are socially
constructed according to the cultural context we live in!
ā¢i.e. ethnographic studies have shown how therapeutic interventions can be
inļ¬uenced by cultural practices, and they have been used to explore the attitudes of
professions in relation to health care and health promotion!
ā¢Special interest of MA is the study of ethno-medicine: an area of examining health
related beliefs, knowledge and practices of cultural groups!
ā¢MA also explores both traditional healing & modern medical technologies
ā¢Summary:MA explores health and illness within its cultural context bc culture in
relation to health is important to health in may ways
Culture and Health
ā¢Deļ¬ning culture is diļ¬cult as it is contested and debated concept!
ā¢Culture: a collective beliefs, assumptions, and values that are communicated bw people
within a society (put simply) it is how we make sense of and understand the social world
in which we live !
ā¢i.e.. attitudes about eating food: s/a eating food together with the familyāare part of our
cultural patterns of behaviour OR health is culturally inļ¬uenced with western societies
dominated by biomedical model of health!
ā¢Health is cultural bc the process of giving meaning to behaviours and events s/a illness
occurrences is a cultural one, shaped by the context in which we live in !
ā¢Evident when we consider that both our perceptions and experiences of health and illness
are inļ¬uenced by culture and cultural norms!
ā¢Therefore, culture not only determines health and illness but also shapes our perceptions
of illness and views of how we are expected to behave when we are ill!
ā¢Culture is about meaningāa system of meanings and symbols that inļ¬uence and shape the
way in which people view and deļ¬ne the social world!
ā¢Culture is related to societal rulesāhence diļ¬. Societies have diļ¬erent rules and cultural
understandings, leading to an array of illness interpretations and experiences!
ā¢Social norms indicate and prescribe attributes and trans in relation to health and illnessā
peoples perceptions of heath and illness are shaped by the culture in which they are located!
ā¢More examples pg 112!
ā¢Health is not just embedded within the individuals or the social context, rather it is related to
a complex interaction between both!
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