ANP 370 1st Edition Lecture 1 Last Lecture I Review of syllabus and class policies no lecture material Outline of Current Lecture Intro to Medical Anthropology II What is medical anthropology A Definition of regulon III Doctors nurses traditional healers IV What it feels like to be sick V Folk illnesses Current Lecture Medical Anthropology Medical anthropology studies health disease illness and sickness in human individuals and populations in holistic perspectives What is health Overall well being what are the concepts of this Health The World Health Organization WHO defines health as not merely the absence of disease but a state of physical mental and social well being this may be a multiple choice question What is disease Typically disease refers to the clinical manifestations of altered physical function or infection o Example cough may be attributed to biological reason such as a cold or may be attributed to environment such as strong cold winds However anthropologists define disease in the context of social problems such as malnutrition economic insecurity industrial and motor vehicle pollution bad housing and political powerlessness that contribute to susceptibility to disease What is illness Illness maybe more temporary disease is something more permanent and less easily treatable Illness is an individual perception of a medical problem as informed by cultural systems the sufferer s experience These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute What is sickness It is an inclusive term that includes physical psychological and cultural dimensions of health It is the criteria that people use to explain a state of health based upon complex interactions between human biology and culture Medical Anthropology Health is not primarily a biological condition o There is a much broader idea of health Understand the social origins of disease The cultural contexts of patients and healers Interactions between biology society and culture A diverse discipline Immersing into day to day lives rather than conducting studies in laboratories more focus on illness and sickness we want to understand human s understanding of health Learn the insider s point of view what people tell to use about their health how they understand and describe health to members of same culture Use of qualitative methods rather than numbers Inclined to take holistic approach Develop detailed but highly contextualized accounts of health and its interrelated issues Promotes applied aspect of medical research Are there biological universals in the field of health Are there cultural universals in the same field Different values The status of Western medicine God s truth of yet another set of cultural practices We assume that Western medicine has much to offer to the world Does the West also have something to learn o They can learn from more holistic prevention practices instead of focusing so hard on treatment and absence of illness or control through medicine How can we approach the non biological elements of disease The question of social cultural and historical context of health and illness