viewed as individual s subjective experience of how they feel refers to the Western scientific diagnosis of what is causing the illness refers to how patients are supposed to act the role they are expected to take in interactions with others including Chapter 4 Book Medical Anthropology like a broken bone or a cut Illness Disease Sickness healing experts Physical injuries Systematic disease Conditions Impairment Disability human being Handicap role that is considered normal for that individual color blindness or albinism polio influenza any loss or abnormality of psychological physiological or anatomical structure or function any restriction or lack of ability to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a a disadvantage for a given individual resulting from an important or a disability that prevents the fulfillment of a o Both disability and handicap are heavily shaped by a number of cultural variables If everyone around them understands and speaks the same language then their impairment ears that don t hear does not constitute a disability There are four distinct components to the equation of human health and medical care 1 Ultimate Causes Explanations of why EX The reason someone was injured or became sick and died a b Might include accident fate God s will c Violations of taboo It may because the person violated some taboo or rule of proper behavior and thee health related consequences follow automatically from this behavioral breach of etiquette Supernatural entities may harm humans through injury or illness even death for a number of different reasons 1 Spirit of aggression the attribution of illness to the direst hostile arbitrary or punitive action of some malevolent of affronted supernatural being i i d Supernatural intervention ii MURDOCK e Human intervention harm others i Anger envy frustration revenge mental illness or pure maliciousness are some reasons why people Stuff happens i ii Nothing could have been done to prevent it and no one can be held responsible for the consequences People may ultimately attribute injury or poor health to the luck of the draw 2 Proximate Causes Explanations of how EX The mechanisms by which someone was injured or became sick or died Immediate causes may be a car accident a dog bite an infection Physical environment i Precipitation Temperature sunlight wind patterns Biological Environment i Macrofauna animals mode of transmission bacteria genetic factors cultural factors 3 Natural coping mechanisms of the body Genetic and physiological The body s natural ability to cope with the consequences of whatever health challenges it faces Natural selection genetic factors Development factors i The concept of resilience positive deviance to describe people who seem better able to cope with f a b c d a b c d health challenges in general e Current health status and stress 4 Cultural Coping Mechanisms Systems of medical beliefs and practices a b Western Biomedicine WBM vs Traditional medicine i WBM focus on counteracting or combating the proximate causes of poor health ii Traditional Alternative focuses on ultimate causes with therapies aimed at strengthening the natural coping mechanisms of the body while also combating the ultimate causes of poor health iii Effective treatment do not necessarily hinge on knowing the exact physical or physiological mechanisms of either disease or cure c d e Birth defects congential abnormalities Dealing with impairments disabilities and handicaps First Aid and the Popular Sector in Healing f Musculoskeleteal and Energy Therapies g Herbalities and Pharmacology i Popular sector most people will have basic knowledge on how to treat minor symptoms of illness this level of common knowledge and ready access to basic medicines and treatments i Pharmacology the use of natural chemical compounds from animals plants or minerals or manufactured synthetically which can be used to treat disease or relieve symptoms h Shamanic and community healing i Use a variety of beliefs and practices to strengthen the body s physical and emotional defenses and ii Often but not always use supernatural forces to aid the expert in diagnosing and treating the illness help people heal on their own or to aid patients directly in the recovery 1 Referred to as shamanic healers iii Shamanic healing is an ancient form of the healing arts and has much success in curing disease and illness iv Often involves the healer touching and manipulating the patient s body and thus it incorporates aspects of musculoskeletal and energy healing modalities i Distance and transportation may mean that it isn t feasible to travel for preventive or curative i Practical access to medical care medical care Economic access to medical care Decision making and individual agency Typical life span vs life expectancy at birth j k l 1 1 i Typical life span infancy and childhood the usual periods of greatest risk of death refers to the oldest typical age to which an individual will live if he survives As the limits of typical life span approach the mortality rate increases again subject to amelioration by the cultural coping mechanisms available a statistic that reflects the average length of life for all members of a ii Life expectancy at birth specific population Calculated by adding up the ages at which people died and then dividing by the number of people who died to get the average length of life for members of the population iii iv The Infant Mortality Rate IMR Population with very low life expectancies at birth experience very high infant and child mortality one year of age per 1000 children born a statistic that indicates how many children die between birth and Interested in a variety of issues having to do with food cuisines food security nutritional adequacy and malnutrition Nutritional Anthropology Primate and Early Hominid Diets Primates Early hominids Humans we are omnivores o o o o o o o o The first bipedal hominids places them in woodland savannah environments in East Africa between five and six million years ago Cooperative hunting Larger amounts of meat in the diet contributed to the dramatic increase in brain size that occurred beginning about 2 million years ago Only stone tools and fossilized animal remains survive from these time periods so it is impossible to know exactly how and when techniques for cooperative hunting were developed or how much meet was tin the diet of early hominids and prehistoric humans even through the