This picture shows an anthropologist researching different species of plants in Ghana with the help of local informats
What is Medical Anthropology
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 therapy management, and the cultural importance and utilization of pluralistic medical systems (Society for Medical Anthropology – Medical Anthropology? n.d.) According to Donald Joralemon in his book Exploring Medical Anthropology, Medical Anthropology is the study of human beings, diseases and adaptations of well-being across cultures (Joralemon, 2010) The discipline of medical anthropology draws upon many different theoretical approaches (Society for Medical Anthropology – Medical Anthropology? n.d.)
Medical Anthropologists contribute to health care in United States in many ways. They work on public and community health projects , consult for hospitals and clinics and participate in the training of medical professional (Joralemon, 2010) Medical Anthropologists are most called upon to apply ethnographic knowledge to assessment of health needs, the planning of culturally acceptable interventions and the resolution of communication difficulties between health workers and patients (Joralemon, 2010)
Medical anthropologists study various issues, including:
"Medical Anthropology is about how people in different cultures and social groups explain the causes of ill health, the types of treatment they believe in, and to whom they turn if they do get ill" - Cecil G. Helman
Medical Anthropologists contribute to health care in United States in many ways. They work on public and community health projects , consult for hospitals and clinics and participate in the training of medical professional (Joralemon, 2010) Medical Anthropologists are most called upon to apply ethnographic knowledge to assessment of health needs, the planning of culturally acceptable interventions and the resolution of communication difficulties between health workers and patients (Joralemon, 2010)
Medical anthropologists study various issues, including:
- Health ramifications of ecological “adaptation and maladaptation”
- Popular health culture and domestic health care practices
- Local interpretations of bodily processes
- Changing body projects and valued bodily attributes
- Perceptions of risk, vulnerability and responsibility for illness and health care
- Risk and protective dimensions of human behavior, cultural norms and social institutions
- Preventative health and harm reduction practices
- The experience of illness and the social relations of sickness
- The range of factors driving health, nutrition and health care transitions
- Ethnomedicine, pluralistic healing modalities, and healing processes
- The social organization of clinical interactions
- The cultural and historical conditions shaping medical practices and policies
- Medical practices in the context of modernity, colonial, and post-colonial social formations
- The use and interpretation of pharmaceuticals and forms of biotechnology
- The commercialization and commodification of health and medicine
- Disease distribution and health disparity
- Differential use and availability of government and private health care resources
- The political economy of health care provision.
- The political ecology of infectious and vector borne diseases, chronic diseases and states of malnutrition, and violence
- The possibilities for a critically engaged yet clinically relevant application of anthropology
"Medical Anthropology is about how people in different cultures and social groups explain the causes of ill health, the types of treatment they believe in, and to whom they turn if they do get ill" - Cecil G. Helman