Anthropology 2290F/G Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Westernization, Social Epidemiology, Stress Management

• School: Western University
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: Anthropology 2290F/G
• Professor: Pamela Block

Document Summary

The routledge handbook of medical anthropology chapter 5: stress in everyday life. Stress: the response of humans to internal/external stimuli (fight or flight response): good increases alertness and performance (adaptability), bad continuous stress leads to illness/exhaustion. Social epidemiologist assert that stress is exacerbated when people experience ongoing predictable circumstances and a lack of control. Stress has become a popular topic in health and wellness. Global discourses of stress have penetrated everyday discussion of fluctuations in health, well-being, and mood. Idioms of distress: the ways in which people make sense of and express such feelings, and the ways that they work to alleviate them. Idioms of distress may appear very differently from place to place. Cultural models supply individuals with a vocabulary of symptoms and provide explanations for these symptoms and associated suffering. Both expression and management of distress need to be understood in relation to the specificities of healing and care in local contexts.