Advertisement
Understanding & Applying Medical Anthropology: A Holistic Approach to Healthcare
Introduction:
Are you intrigued by the intersection of culture, health, and illness? Do you want to understand why healthcare practices differ so drastically across the globe, and how this understanding can improve patient outcomes? Then you need to delve into the fascinating field of medical anthropology. This comprehensive guide will explore the core principles of medical anthropology, demonstrating its practical application in various healthcare settings. We'll unpack its theoretical underpinnings, highlighting how understanding cultural contexts is crucial for effective healthcare delivery. Prepare to broaden your perspective on health and illness—and discover how medical anthropology can revolutionize your approach.
H2: What is Medical Anthropology?
Medical anthropology is an interdisciplinary field that examines the relationship between health, illness, and culture. It transcends the purely biological understanding of disease, incorporating social, cultural, political, and economic factors. Unlike a purely biomedical approach, medical anthropology recognizes that health isn't just the absence of disease, but a complex state influenced by individual beliefs, social structures, and environmental conditions. It aims to understand how cultural beliefs shape experiences of illness, healthcare seeking behavior, and the effectiveness of medical interventions.
H2: Key Concepts in Medical Anthropology:
Several core concepts underpin medical anthropological studies:
H3: The Illness Experience: This focuses on how individuals perceive, interpret, and respond to their own illness. It acknowledges that the experience of illness is deeply personal and shaped by cultural frameworks. What one culture considers a disease, another might attribute to supernatural causes or spiritual imbalance.
H3: Ethnomedicine: This explores the various traditional healthcare systems and practices found in different cultures. Understanding ethnomedicine is crucial for respectful cross-cultural healthcare, ensuring that treatments are culturally appropriate and don't clash with patients' existing beliefs.
H3: Medical Pluralism: This acknowledges that individuals often utilize multiple healthcare systems concurrently – integrating biomedical treatments with traditional healing practices. Understanding this pluralism is vital for effective healthcare delivery, allowing for integration rather than conflict between different approaches.
H3: Critical Medical Anthropology: This branch critiques the power dynamics inherent in healthcare systems, examining how social inequalities influence health outcomes. It highlights issues of access, equity, and the social determinants of health.
H2: Applying Medical Anthropology in Practice:
The principles of medical anthropology have significant practical applications across numerous healthcare settings:
H3: Global Health Initiatives: Understanding cultural contexts is paramount in designing and implementing effective global health interventions. Medical anthropologists contribute significantly to designing culturally sensitive programs and evaluating their success.
H3: Public Health Campaigns: Successful public health campaigns require tailoring messages to resonate with the specific cultural values and beliefs of the target population. Medical anthropologists play a vital role in designing culturally relevant communication strategies.
H3: Clinical Practice: Integrating an anthropological perspective into clinical practice can significantly improve doctor-patient communication and treatment adherence. Understanding patients' cultural beliefs regarding illness can lead to more effective diagnoses and treatment plans.
H3: Health Policy Development: Medical anthropologists provide valuable insights into the social and cultural factors affecting health policy decisions, contributing to the development of more equitable and effective health systems.
H2: Challenges and Ethical Considerations:
While the application of medical anthropology offers numerous benefits, it also presents challenges:
H3: Cultural Relativism vs. Universal Human Rights: Balancing cultural sensitivity with the upholding of universal human rights, particularly in cases involving harmful traditional practices, requires careful consideration.
H3: Power Dynamics and Representation: Anthropologists must be mindful of power imbalances inherent in research and practice, ensuring ethical research methods and representing the voices of the communities they study.
H3: Generalizability and Applicability: Findings from anthropological research may not always be directly generalizable to other contexts, requiring careful consideration of cultural nuances.
Conclusion:
Understanding and applying medical anthropology is crucial for improving healthcare outcomes globally. By acknowledging the profound influence of culture on health and illness, we can move beyond a purely biomedical approach towards a more holistic and effective model of care. Integrating medical anthropological perspectives across healthcare settings leads to culturally sensitive interventions, improved patient-provider communication, and more equitable healthcare systems. Embracing this interdisciplinary field is not just academically enriching but fundamentally essential for creating a healthier world.
FAQs:
1. How can I learn more about medical anthropology? Start with introductory textbooks and reputable online resources. Consider pursuing relevant courses or even a degree in anthropology or a related field.
2. What career paths are available in medical anthropology? Careers include research, teaching, working with NGOs focused on global health, and roles within public health agencies and healthcare organizations.
3. Is medical anthropology only relevant in developing countries? No, the principles of medical anthropology are applicable in all settings, even within seemingly homogenous populations where cultural variations exist at the community or sub-group level.
4. How does medical anthropology differ from other approaches to healthcare research? It explicitly prioritizes understanding the cultural and social context of health and illness, unlike purely biological or psychological approaches.
5. What are some ethical dilemmas faced by medical anthropologists? Balancing cultural sensitivity with ethical obligations to protect human rights, especially in cases involving harmful practices, is a constant challenge. Maintaining research integrity and avoiding exploitation of communities are also significant concerns.
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology Peter J. Brown, Svea Closser, 2016-07-01 The editors of the third edition of the seminal textbook Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology bring it completely up to date for both instructors and students. The collection of 49 readings (17 of them new to this edition) offers extensive background description and exposes students to the breadth of theoretical, methodological, and practical perspectives and issues in the field of medical anthropology. The text provides specific examples and case studies of research as it is applied to a range of health settings: from cross-cultural clinical encounters to cultural analysis of new biomedical technologies and the implementation of programs in global health settings. The new edition features: • a major revision that eliminates many older readings in favor of more fresh, relevant selections; • a new section on structural violence that looks at the impact of poverty and other forms of social marginalization on health; • an updated and expanded section on “Conceptual Tools,” including new research and ideas that are currently driving the field of medical anthropology forward (such as epigenetics and syndemics); • new chapters on climate change, Ebola, PTSD among Iraq/Afghanistan veterans, eating disorders, and autism, among others; • recent articles from Margaret Mead Award winners Sera Young, Seth Holmes, and Erin Finley, along with new articles by such established medical anthropologists as Paul Farmer and Merrill Singer. |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology Peter Brown, Ron Barrett, 2009-05-18 This collection of 49 readings with extensive background description exposes students to the breadth of theoretical perspectives and issues in the field of medical anthropology. The text provides specific examples and case studies of research as it is applied to a range of health settings: from cross-cultural clinical encounters to cultural analysis of new biomedical technologies to the implementation of programs in global health settings. |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology Peter J. Brown, 1998 This collection of readings exposes students to the breadth of theoretical viewpoints and issues in the field of medical anthropology. The text provides specific examples and case studies of research as it is applied in a range of health settings - from clinical encounters to preventive services to international health. |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology Peter J. Brown, Svea Closser, 2015 |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology Peter Brown, 2004-07-02 This anthology of readings exposes students to the breadth of theoretical viewpoints and issues in the field of medical anthropology. It provides specific examples and case studies of research as it is applied in a range of health settings, from clinical encounters to preventive services to international health. |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Exploring Medical Anthropology Donald Joralemon, 2017-03-16 Now in its fourth edition, Exploring Medical Anthropology provides a concise and engaging introduction to medical anthropology. It presents competing theoretical perspectives in a balanced fashion, highlighting points of conflict and convergence. Concrete examples and the author’s personal research experiences are utilized to explain some of the discipline’s most important insights, such as that biology and culture matter equally in the human experience of disease and that medical anthropology can help to alleviate human suffering. The text has been thoroughly updated for the fourth edition, including fresh case studies and a new chapter on drugs. It contains a range of pedagogical features to support teaching and learning, including images, text boxes, a glossary, and suggested further reading. |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: A Companion to Medical Anthropology Merrill Singer, Pamela I. Erickson, 2011-03-29 A Companion to Medical Anthropology examines the current issues, controversies, and state of the field in medical anthropology today. Provides an expert view of the major topics and themes to concern the discipline since its founding in the 1960s Written by leading international scholars in medical anthropology Covers environmental health, global health, biotechnology, syndemics, nutrition, substance abuse, infectious disease, and sexuality and reproductive health, and other topics |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Introducing Medical Anthropology Merrill Singer, Hans A. Baer, 2011-11-04 This revised textbook provides students with a first exposure to the growing field of medical anthropology. The narrative is guided by unifying themes. First, medical anthropology is actively engaged in helping to address pressing health problems around the globe through research, intervention, and policy-related initiatives. Second, illness and disease cannot be fully understood or effectively addressed by treating them solely as biological in nature; rather, health problems involve complex biosocial processes and resolving them requires attention to range of factors including systems of belief, structures of social relationship, and environmental conditions. Third, through an examination of health inequalities on the one hand and environmental degradation and environment-related illness on the other, the book underlines the need for going beyond cultural or even ecological models of health toward a comprehensive medical anthropology. The authors show that a medical anthropology that integrates biological, cultural, and social factors to truly understand the origin of ill health will contribute to more effective and equitable health care systems. |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Culture and Health Michael Winkelman, 2005 |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Critical Medical Anthropology Jennie Gamlin, Sahra Gibbon, Paola M. Sesia, Lina Berrio , 2020-03-12 Critical Medical Anthropology presents inspiring work from scholars doing and engaging with ethnographic research in or from Latin America, addressing themes that are central to contemporary Critical Medical Anthropology (CMA). This includes issues of inequality, embodiment of history, indigeneity, non-communicable diseases, gendered violence, migration, substance abuse, reproductive politics and judicialisation, as these relate to health. The collection of ethnographically informed research, including original theoretical contributions, reconsiders the broader relevance of CMA perspectives for addressing current global healthcare challenges from and of Latin America. It includes work spanning four countries in Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Guatemala and Peru) as well as the trans-migratory contexts they connect and are defined by. By drawing on diverse social practices, it addresses challenges of central relevance to medical anthropology and global health, including reproduction and maternal health, sex work, rare and chronic diseases, the pharmaceutical industry and questions of agency, political economy, identity, ethnicity, and human rights. |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Clinical Anthropology 2.0 Jason W. Wilson, Roberta D. Baer, 2022-02-10 Clinical Anthropology 2.0 presents a new approach to applied medical anthropology that engages with clinical spaces, healthcare systems, care delivery and patient experience, public health, as well as the education and training of physicians. In this book, Jason W. Wilson and Roberta D. Baer highlight the key role that medical anthropologists can play on interdisciplinary care teams by improving patient experience and medical education. Included throughout are real life examples of this approach, such as the training of medical and anthropology students, creation of clinical pathways, improvement of patient experiences and communication, and design patient-informed interventions. This book includes contributions by Heather Henderson, Emily Holbrook, Kilian Kelly, Carlos Osorno-Cruz, and Seiichi Villalona. |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Clinically Applied Anthropology N. Chrisman, T. Maretzki, 2012-12-06 like other collections of papers related to a single topic, this volume arose out of problem-sharing and problem-solving discussions among some of the authors. The two principal recurring issues were (1) the difficulties in translating anthropo logical knowledge so that our students could use it and (2) the difficulties of bringing existing medical anthropology literature to bear on this task. As we talked to other anthropologists teaching in other parts of the country and in various health-related schools, we recognized that our problems were similar. Similarities in our solutions led the Editors to believe that publication of our teaching experi ences and research relevant to teaching would help others and might begin the process of generating principles leading to a more coherent approach. Our colleagues supported this idea and agreed to contribute. What we agreed to write about was 'Clinically Applied Anthropology'. Much of what we were doing and certainly much of the relevant literature was applied anthropology. And our target group was composed-mostly of clinicians. The utility of the term became apparent after 1979 when another set of anthropologists began to discuss 'ainical Anthropology'. They too recognized the range of novel be haviors available to anthropologists in the health science arena and chose to focus on the clinical use of anthropology. We see this as an important endeavor, but very different from what we are proposing. |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Medical Anthropology at the Intersections Marcia C. Inhorn, Emily A. Wentzell, 2012-07-19 This work offers productive insight into the field of medical anthropology and its future, as viewed by some of the world's leading medical anthropologists. |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Evidence, Ethos and Experiment P. Wenzel Geissler, Catherine Molyneux, 2011-09-01 Medical research has been central to biomedicine in Africa for over a century, and Africa, along with other tropical areas, has been crucial to the development of medical science. At present, study populations in Africa participate in an increasing number of medical research projects and clinical trials, run by both public institutions and private companies. Global debates about the politics and ethics of this research are growing and local concerns are prompting calls for social studies of the “trial communities” produced by this scientific work. Drawing on rich, ethnographic and historiographic material, this volume represents the emergent field of anthropological inquiry that links Africanist ethnography to recent concerns with science, the state, and the culture of late capitalism in Africa. |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Encyclopedia of Medical Anthropology Carol R. Ember, Melvin Ember, 2003-12-31 Medical practitioners and the ordinary citizen are becoming more aware that we need to understand cultural variation in medical belief and practice. The more we know how health and disease are managed in different cultures, the more we can recognize what is culture bound in our own medical belief and practice. The Encyclopedia of Medical Anthropology is unique because it is the first reference work to describe the cultural practices relevant to health in the world's cultures and to provide an overview of important topics in medical anthropology. No other single reference work comes close to marching the depth and breadth of information on the varying cultural background of health and illness around the world. More than 100 experts - anthropologists and other social scientists - have contributed their firsthand experience of medical cultures from around the world. |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: The Routledge Handbook of Medical Anthropology Lenore Manderson, Elizabeth Cartwright, Anita Hardon, 2016-05-12 The Routledge Handbook of Medical Anthropology provides a contemporary overview of the key themes in medical anthropology. In this exciting departure from conventional handbooks, compendia and encyclopedias, the three editors have written the core chapters of the volume, and in so doing, invite the reader to reflect on the ethnographic richness and theoretical contributions of research on the clinic and the field, bioscience and medical research, infectious and non-communicable diseases, biomedicine, complementary and alternative modalities, structural violence and vulnerability, gender and ageing, reproduction and sexuality. As a way of illustrating the themes, a rich variety of case studies are included, presented by over 60 authors from around the world, reflecting the diverse cultural contexts in which people experience health, illness, and healing. Each chapter and its case studies are introduced by a photograph, reflecting medical and visual anthropological responses to inequality and vulnerability. An indispensible reference in this fastest growing area of anthropological study, The Routledge Handbook of Medical Anthropology is a unique and innovative contribution to the field. |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Medical Materialities Aaron Parkhurst, Timothy Carroll, 2019-01-14 Medical Materialities investigates possible points of cross-fertilisation between medical anthropology and material culture studies, and considers the successes and limitations of both sub-disciplines as they attempt to understand places, practices, methods, and cultures of healing. The editors present and expand upon a definition of ‘medical materiality’, namely the social impact of the agency of often mundane, at times non-clinical, materials within contexts of health and illness, as caused by the properties and affordances of this material. The chapters address material culture in various clinical and biomedical contexts and in discussions that link the body and healing. The diverse ethnographic case studies provide valuable insight into the way cultures of medicine are understood and practised. |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: A Reader in Medical Anthropology Byron J. Good, Michael M. J. Fischer, Sarah S. Willen, Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good, 2010-03-22 A Reader in Medical Anthropology: Theoretical Trajectories, Emergent Realities brings together articles from the key theoretical approaches in the field of medical anthropology as well as related science and technology studies. The editors’ comprehensive introductions evaluate the historical lineages of these approaches and their value in addressing critical problems associated with contemporary forms of illness experience and health care. Presents a key selection of both classic and new agenda-setting articles in medical anthropology Provides analytic and historical contextual introductions by leading figures in medical anthropology, medical sociology, and science and technology studies Critically reviews the contribution of medical anthropology to a new global health movement that is reshaping international health agendas |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: An Anthropology of Biomedicine Margaret M. Lock, Vinh-Kim Nguyen, 2011-09-09 An Anthropology of Biomedicine is an exciting new introduction to biomedicine and its global implications. Focusing on the ways in which the application of biomedical technologies bring about radical changes to societies at large, cultural anthropologist Margaret Lock and her co-author physician and medical anthropologist Vinh-Kim Nguyen develop and integrate the thesis that the human body in health and illness is the elusive product of nature and culture that refuses to be pinned down. Introduces biomedicine from an anthropological perspective, exploring the entanglement of material bodies with history, environment, culture, and politics Develops and integrates an original theory: that the human body in health and illness is not an ontological given but a moveable, malleable entity Makes extensive use of historical and contemporary ethnographic materials around the globe to illustrate the importance of this methodological approach Integrates key new research data with more classical material, covering the management of epidemics, famines, fertility and birth, by military doctors from colonial times on Uses numerous case studies to illustrate concepts such as the global commodification of human bodies and body parts, modern forms of population, and the extension of biomedical technologies into domestic and intimate domains Winner of the 2010 Prose Award for Archaeology and Anthropology |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: On Knowing and Not Knowing in the Anthropology of Medicine Roland Littlewood, 2016-07 Social scientific studies of medicine typically assume that systems of medical knowledge are uniform and consistent. But while anthropologists have long rejected the notion that cultures are discrete, bounded, and rule-drive entities, medical anthropology has been slower to develop alternative approaches to understanding cultures of health. This provocative volume considers the theoretical, methodological, and ethnographic implications of the fact that medical knowledge is frequently dynamic, incoherent, and contradictory, and that and our understanding of it is necessarily incomplete and partial. In diverse settings from indigenous cultures to Western medical industries, contributors consider such issues as how to define the boundaries of “medical” knowledge versus other kinds of knowledge; how to understand overlapping and shifting medical discourses; the medical profession’s need for anthropologists to produce “explanatory models”; the limits of the Western scientific method and the potential for methodological pluralism; constraints on fieldwork including violence and structural factors limiting access; and the subjectivity and interests of the researcher. On Knowing and Not Knowing in the Anthropology of Medicine will stimulate innovative thinking and productive debate for practitioners, researchers, and students in the social science of health and medicine. |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Medical Anthropology In Ecological Perspective Ann McElroy, Patricia K Townsend, 1996-10-17 The third edition of this classic text in medical anthropology has been revised to reflect new developments in theory and research. In theory, it addresses new thinking about political ecology and critiques older theoretical approaches. AIDS is a prominent topic in this new edition, as are other timely issues such as disability, medical pluralism, and health care seeking behavior. The authors have also expanded the number of health profiles to include migrant worker health, famine in the Horn of Africa, and paleopathology in the southwestern United States. |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Patients and Healers in the Context of Culture Arthur Kleinman, 2023-04-28 From the Preface, by Arthur Kleinman: Patients and Healers in the Context of Culture presents a theoretical framework for studying the relationship between medicine, psychiatry, and culture. That framework is principally illustrated by materials gathered in field research in Taiwan and, to a lesser extent, from materials gathered in similar research in Boston. The reader will find this book contains a dialectical tension between two reciprocally related orientations: it is both a cross-cultural (largely anthropological) perspective on the essential components of clinical care and a clinical perspective on anthropological studies of medicine and psychiatry. That dialectic is embodied in my own academic training and professional life, so that this book is a personal statement. I am a psychiatrist trained in anthropology. I have worked in library, field, and clinic on problems concerning medicine and psychiatry in Chinese culture. I teach cross-cultural psychiatry and medical anthropology, but I also practice and teach consultation psychiatry and take a clinical approach to my major cross-cultural teaching and research involvements. The theoretical framework elaborated in this book has been applied to all of those areas; in turn, they are used to illustrate the theory. Both the theory and its application embody the same dialectic. The purpose of this book is to advance both poles of that dialectic: to demonstrate the critical role of social science (especially anthropology and cross-cultural studies) in clinical medicine and psychiatry and to encourage study of clinical problems by anthropologists and other investigators involved in cross-cultural research. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1980. From the Preface, by Arthur Kleinman: Patients and Healers in the Context of Culture presents a theoretical framework for studying the relationship between medicine, psychiatry, and culture. That framework is principally illustrated by materials gathered |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Medicine, Rationality and Experience Byron J. Good, 1994 Biomedicine is often thought to provide a scientific account of the human body and of illness. In this view, non-Western and folk medical systems are regarded as systems of 'belief' and subtly discounted. This is an impoverished perspective for understanding illness and healing across cultures, one that neglects many facets of Western medical practice and obscures its kinship with healing in other traditions. Drawing on his research in several American and Middle Eastern medical settings, in this 1993 book Professor Good develops a critical, anthropological account of medical knowledge and practice. He shows how physicians and healers enter and inhabit distinctive worlds of meaning and experience. He explores how stories or illness narratives are joined with bodily experience in shaping and responding to human suffering and argues that moral and aesthetic considerations are present in routine medical practice as in other forms of healing. |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Medical Anthropology Andrea S. Wiley, John Scott Allen, 2013 An ideal core text for introductory courses, Medical Anthropology: A Biocultural Approach, Second Edition, offers an accessible and contemporary overview of this rapidly expanding field. For each health issue examined in the text, the authors first present basic biological information on specific conditions and then expand their analysis to include evolutionary, historical, and cross-cultural perspectives on how these issues are understood. Medical Anthropology considers how a biocultural approach can be applied to more effective prevention and treatment efforts and underscores medical anthropology's potential to improve health around the world. |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Healing Roots Julie Laplante, 2015-02-01 Umhlonyane, also known as Artemisia afra, is one of the oldest and best-documented indigenous medicines in South Africa. This bush, which grows wild throughout the sub-Saharan region, smells and tastes like “medicine,” thus easily making its way into people’s lives and becoming the choice of everyday healing for Xhosa healer-diviners and Rastafarian herbalists. This “natural” remedy has recently sparked curiosity as scientists search for new molecules against a tuberculosis pandemic while hoping to recognize indigenous medicine. Laplante follows umhlonyane on its trails and trials of becoming a biopharmaceutical — from the “open air” to controlled environments — learning from the plant and from the people who use it with hopes in healing. |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Anthropology in Public Health Robert A. Hahn, Kate W. Harris, 1999 Cultural and social boundaries often separate those who participate in public health activities, and it is a major challenge to translate public health knowledge and technical capacity into public health action across these boundaries. This book provides an overview of anthropology and illustrates in 15 case studies how anthropological concepts and methods can help us understand and resolve diverse public health problems around the world. For example, one chapter shows how differences in concepts and terminology among patients, clinicians, and epidemiologists in a southwestern U.S. county hinder the control of epidemics. Another chapter examines reasons that Mexican farmers don't use protective equipment when spraying pesticides and suggests ways to increase use. Another examines the culture of international health agencies, demonstrates institutional values and practices that impede effective public health practice, and suggests issues that must be addressed to enhance institutional organization and process.; Each chapter characterizes a public health problem, describes methods used to analyse it, reviews results, and discusses implications; several chapters also describe and evaluate programs designed to address the problem on the basis of anthropological knowledge. The book provides practical models and indicates anthropological tools to translate public health knowledge and technical capacity into public health action. |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Empathy and Healing Vieda Skultans, 2008-03-01 For more than three decades the author has been concerned with issues to do with emotion, suffering and healing. This volume presents ethnographic studies of South Wales, Maharashtra and post-Soviet Latvia connected by a theoretical interest in healing, emotion and subjectivity. Exploring the uses of narrative in the shaping of memory, autobiography and illness and its connections with the master narratives of history and culture, it focuses on the post-Soviet clinic as an arena in which the contradictions of a liberal economy are translated into a medical language. |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: The Applied Anthropology of Obesity Chad T. Morris, Alexandra G. Lancey, 2015-12-24 The increasing global prevalence of obesity and nutrition-based non-communicable disease has many causes, including food availability; social norms as evidenced in local foodways; genetic predisposition; economic circumstance; cultural variation in norms surrounding body composition; and policies affecting production, distribution, and consumption of food locally and globally. The Applied Anthropology of Obesity:Prevention, Intervention, and Identity advances understanding of the many cultural factors underlying increased global obesity prevalence. This collection of chapters showcase the value of anthropology’s holistic approach to human interaction by exploring how human identity associated with obesity/overweight is affected by cultural norms, policy decisions, and perceptions of cultural change. They also demonstrate best practices for the application of anthropological skillsets to develop culturally-appropriate nutritional behavior change across multiple levels of analysis, from local programming to policy decisions at local and national levels. In addition to soliciting explanatory models used by respondents in different cultures and situations, anthropologists find themselves on the front lines of public health and policy attempts at affecting behavioral change. As such, this applied-focused volume will be of utility to scholars and practitioners in applied and medical anthropology, as well as to scholars and professionals in public health and other disciplines. The volume’s authors are professional and student anthropologists from both public health practice and academia. Chapters are geographically diverse, containing lessons learned from attempts to combat obesity by anthropologically focusing on culture, history, economy, and power relative to obesity causation, prevention, and intervention. The Applied Anthropology of Obesity: Prevention, Intervention, and Identity candidly provides rich information about social identity, obesity, and treatment. |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Applied Health Research Manual Anita Hardon, P. Boonmongkon, P. Streefland, M. L. Tan, 2005-03 This volume focuses on a number of important problem areas and issues, such as vaccination, reproductive health and AIDS, equity and community health financing, self-care and the use and distribution of pharmaceuticals, that confront health professionals and health planners. Public health staff at different levels are involved in providing health education and primary health care and are confronted with difficulties related to the socio-cultural context in which they work as they implement health programs. Anita Hardon is professor of anthropology of care and health, University of Amsterdam and dean of the Amsterdam School of Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam. Pimpawun Boonmongkon is assistant professor of Medical Anthropology at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand. Pieter Streefland is senior research fellow at the Royal Tropical Institute, full professor of applied development sociology, and professor of master medical anthropology and sociology, University of Amsterdam. Michael Lim Tan is medical anthropologist and lecturer, University of the Philippines, and director of Health Action Information Network. Thavitong Hongvivatana is professor of medical social science and director of the Center for Health Policy Studies, Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Sjaak van der Geest is professor of medical anthropology, University of Amsterdam. Anneloes van Staa is medical doctor and medical anthropologist, and lecturer, Institute of Health Policy and Management at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. Corlien Varkevisser is a medical sociologist-anthropologist professor emeritus in Health System Research, University of Amsterdam. Cecilia Acuin, M.D., F.P.A.F.P, Department of Family Medicine of the De La Salle University in Manila. Mushtaque Chowdhury is visiting professor, Columbia University and deputy executive director of the research and evaluation division of BRAC in Bangladesh. Abbas Bhuiya is head of the Social and Behavioural Sciences Programme, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh. Luechai Sringeryuang is associate professor of medical anthropology, Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Els van Dongen is associate professor in medical anthropology, University of Amsterdam. Trudie Gerrits is a medical anthropologist and research fellow, Amsterdam School of Social Science Research. |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Medical Anthropology Pool, Robert, Geissler, Wenzel, 2005-09-01 This book provides an introduction to the basic concepts, approaches and theories used, and shows how these contribute to understanding complex health related behaviour. Public health policies and interventions are more likely to be effective if the beliefs and behaviour of people are understood and taken into account. |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Medical Anthropology Thomas Malcolm Johnson, Carolyn F. Sargent, 1990 |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: New Horizons in Medical Anthropology Margaret Lock, Mark Nichter, 2003-09-02 These cutting edge essays and case studies on issues like AIDS, medical technologies and overpopulation, are collected here in honour of Charles Leslie, the influential anthropologist. |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Critical Medical Anthropology Merrill Singer, Hans Baer, 2018-10-26 The purpose of this book is to provide an introduction and overview to the critical perspective as it has evolved in medical anthropology over the last ten years. Standing as an opposition approach to conventional medical anthropology, critical medical anthropology has emphasized the importance of political and economy forces, including the exercise of power, in shaping health, disease, illness experience, and health care. |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: The Social Fabric of Health John M. Janzen, 2002 This book covers the familiar themes in medical anthropology, but places them in a unique perspective. Using a fabric metaphor, The Social Fabric of Health weaves together relationships, bodies, feelings, narratives, idea, material support, and institutions in the human experience of health, illness, and healing. In addition to the unique fabric perspective the book brings to the subject of medical anthropology, it also brings another unique perspective to thissubject: Using signs-an approach commonly known as semiotics-the text formulates the nuances between the subjective realm of individual experience and the more objective, public world of symbols, codes, and laws |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Chronic Conditions, Fluid States Lenore Manderson, Carolyn Smith-Morris, 2010 A major collection of essays from leaders in the field of medical anthropology, Chronic Conditions, Fluid States pays much-needed attention to one of the greatest challenges currently faced by both the wealthiest and poorest of nations. For anyone wishing to think critically about chronic illness in cross-cultural perspective, the social forces shaping this issue, and its impact on the lived experiences of people worldwide, there is no better place to start than this pioneering volume.---Richard Parker, Columbia University, and editor-in-chief, Global Public Health -- |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Introducing Cultural Anthropology Brian M. Howell, Jenell Paris, 2019-06-18 What is the role of culture in human experience? This concise yet solid introduction to cultural anthropology helps readers explore and understand this crucial issue from a Christian perspective. Now revised and updated throughout, this new edition of a successful textbook covers standard cultural anthropology topics with special attention given to cultural relativism, evolution, and missions. It also includes a new chapter on medical anthropology. Plentiful figures, photos, and sidebars are sprinkled throughout the text, and updated ancillary support materials and teaching aids are available through Baker Academic's Textbook eSources. |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Plants, Health and Healing Elisabeth Hsu, Stephen Harris, 2012 Plants have cultural histories, as their applications change over time and with place. Some plant species have affected human cultures in profound ways, such as the stimulants tea and coffee from the Old World, or coca and quinine from South America. Even though medicinal plants have always attracted considerable attention, there is surprisingly little research on the interface of ethnobotany and medical anthropology. This volume, which brings together (ethno-)botanists, medical anthropologists and a clinician, makes an important contribution towards filling this gap. It emphasises that plant knowledge arises situationally as an intrinsic part of social relationships, that herbs need to be enticed if not seduced by the healers who work with them, that herbal remedies are cultural artefacts, and that bioprospecting and medicinal plant discovery can be viewed as the epitome of a long history of borrowing, stealing and exchanging plants. |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Lissa Hamdy, Sherine, Nye, Coleman, 2017-11-15 As Anna and Layla reckon with illness, risk, and loss in different ways, they learn the power of friendship and the importance of hope. |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Anthropology of Infectious Disease Merrill Singer, 2016-07 This book synthesizes the flourishing field of anthropology of infectious disease in a critical, biocultural framework, advancing research in this multifaceted area and offering an ideal supplemental text. |
| understanding applying medical anthropology: Visual Interventions Sarah Pink, 2007-12-01 Visual anthropology has proved to offer fruitful methods of research and representation to applied projects of social intervention. Through a series of case studies based on applied visual anthropological work in a range of contexts (health and medicine, tourism and heritage, social development, conflict and disaster relief, community filmmaking and empowerment, and industry) this volume examines both the range contexts in which applied visual anthropology is engaged, and the methodological and theoretical issues it raises. |
Understanding And Applying Medical Anthropology (PDF)
Decoding Understanding And Applying Medical Anthropology: Revealing the Captivating Potential of Verbal …
UNDERSTANDING AND APPLYING MEDICAL ANTHRO…
UNDERSTANDING AND APPLYING MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY. Peter J. Brown Emory University. Mayfield Publishing …
Understanding And Applying Medical Anthropology (Downl…
Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology Peter J. Brown,1998 This collection of readings exposes …
Understanding And Applying Medical Anthropology
Understanding Applying Medical Anthropology (PDF) Understanding and applying medical anthropology is …
Understanding And Applying Medical Anthropology
Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology Peter J. Brown,1998 This collection of readings exposes …
Understanding And Applying Medical Anthropology
edition of the seminal textbook Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology bring it completely up to …
Understanding Applying Medical Anthropology (Downl…
Understanding and applying medical anthropology is crucial for improving healthcare outcomes globally. By …
Culture and Health: Applying Medical Anthropology
This text provides an overview of different areas of medical anthropology, both theoretical and applied. The text …
Understanding And Applying Medical Anthropology (PDF)
Decoding Understanding And Applying Medical Anthropology: Revealing the Captivating Potential of Verbal Expression. In an era characterized by interconnectedness and an insatiable thirst for knowledge, the captivating potential of verbal expression has emerged as a formidable force.
UNDERSTANDING AND APPLYING MEDICAL …
UNDERSTANDING AND APPLYING MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY. Peter J. Brown Emory University. Mayfield Publishing Company Mountain View, California London • Toronto. Contents. To the Instructor v To the Student. viii. Part I. UNDERSTANDING M EDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: Biocultural. and Cultural Approaches 1.
Understanding And Applying Medical Anthropology …
Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology Peter J. Brown,1998 This collection of readings exposes students to the breadth of theoretical viewpoints and issues in the field of medical anthropology The text provides specific examples and case studies of research
Understanding And Applying Medical Anthropology
Understanding Applying Medical Anthropology (PDF) Understanding and applying medical anthropology is crucial for improving healthcare outcomes globally. By acknowledging the profound influence of culture on health and illness, we can
Understanding And Applying Medical Anthropology
Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology Peter J. Brown,1998 This collection of readings exposes students to the breadth of theoretical viewpoints and issues in the...
Understanding And Applying Medical Anthropology
edition of the seminal textbook Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology bring it completely up to date for both instructors and students. The collection of 49 readings (17 of them...
Understanding Applying Medical Anthropology …
Understanding and applying medical anthropology is crucial for improving healthcare outcomes globally. By acknowledging the profound influence of culture on health and illness, we can move beyond a purely biomedical approach towards a more holistic and effective model of care.
Culture and Health: Applying Medical Anthropology
This text provides an overview of different areas of medical anthropology, both theoretical and applied. The text outlines how to address the challenges of cross-cultural medicine and medical pluralism through interdisciplinary cultural-ecological models and personal and institutional developmental approaches to cross-cultural adaptation and ...
Understanding And Applying Medical Anthropology (2024)
Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology: A Holistic Approach to Healthcare. Introduction: Are you intrigued by the intricate interplay between culture, society, and health? Do you believe healthcare is more than just treating symptoms; it's …
Medical Anthropology: An Introduction to the Fields
All five approaches in medical anthropology share four essential premises: first, that illness and healing are basic human experiences that are best understood
Understanding And Applying Medical Anthropology
Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology Peter J. Brown,1998 This collection of readings exposes students to the breadth of theoretical viewpoints and issues in the field of...
Understanding And Applying Medical Anthropology …
Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology Peter J. Brown,1998 This collection of readings exposes students to the breadth of theoretical viewpoints and issues in the field of medical anthropology The text provides specific examples and case studies of research
Understanding And Applying Medical Anthropology [PDF]
Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology Peter J. Brown,1998 This collection of readings exposes students to the breadth of theoretical viewpoints and issues in the field of medical anthropology The text provides specific examples and case studies of research
ANTH 115: Introduction to Medical Anthropology - Society …
This course offers an intensive introduction to medical anthropology through these shifts in problems and approaches, with additional foci on contemporary questions of addiction, disability, metabolism, and care, in and beyond the U.S.
Understanding And Applying Medical Anthropology
applied anthropology, trans-cultural psychiatry and the medical ecology, critical medical anthropology and symbolic paradigms as frameworks for enhanced comprehension of health and the medical encounter. Includes cultural case studies, applied vignettes, and self-assessments.
MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY - Health Professions Advising
Medical Anthropology is a subfield of anthropology that draws upon social, cultural, biological, and linguistic anthropology to better understand those factors which influence health and well being (broadly defined), the experience and distribution of illness, the prevention and treatment of sickness, healing processes, the social relations of ...
Understanding And Applying Medical Anthropology
Applying Medical Anthropology edition of the seminal textbook Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology bring it completely up to date for both instructors and students. The collection of 49 readings (17 of them new...
APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY (ANTH601) - UMD
This course seeks to develop students’ understanding and use of applied anthropology. It raises fundamental questions such as what is applied anthropology, its history and evolution, and its future within and outside of the discipline of anthropology. The course is for graduate students
Understanding And Applying Medical Anthropology
Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology Peter J. Brown,1998 This collection of readings exposes students to the breadth of theoretical viewpoints and issues in the...
Understanding And Applying Medical Anthropology (PDF)
It offers free PDF downloads for educational purposes. Understanding And Applying Medical Anthropology Provides a large selection of free eBooks in different genres, which are available for download in various formats, including PDF.
