ANTH 1002 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: American Psychiatric Association, Thick Description, Typhoid Fever
Document Summary
Medical anthropologists study the intersection between culture and illness. Scientist might want to investigate the rise in skin cancer rates. However, an anthropologist might suggest if there are any cultural. Lo and behold, rise in skin cancer rates attributed to increase desire for tanning (coco chanel made it popular to tan. Before that, light skin was preferred because it meant you weren"t a laborer working outside in the elds) Might also look at thick description of illness phenomena. Some of these cultures use a combination of western medicine and supernatural magic to cure diseases. Key objective: intellectual project how it is that people come to see the body and things that go wrong with it in terms of their culture. Anecdote: grinker met couple who had toddler who stopped making eye contact, stopped talking, would ap his hands, would cover his ears when heard displeasing sounds.
