HLTA02H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Biomedicine, Social Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
CHAPTER 5: SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND HEALTH
WARWICK ET AL.
What is social anthropology?
•Social Anthropology: is the study of all aspects of society from a cross-cultural perspective!
•Historically emerged as the study of the different and exotic other— with researchers
studying non-western societies, cultures, and social worlds perceived as different to the
western developed world e.g some societies believed in witchcraft!
•Contemporary anthropology is concerned with western cultures as it is with exotic others!
•Medical Anthropology: sub-discipline— concerned with studying patterns of human
health, sickness and death by considering both biological and cultural factors!
•Concerned with: the experiences and practices of health, illness and healing in diff.
Social and cultural contexts. !
•ie. MA have researched native African and asian medicines, local critiques of
professional healing systems etc!
•Ethnography: studies have demonstrated that illness and medical care are socially
constructed according to the cultural context we live in!
•i.e. ethnographic studies have shown how therapeutic interventions can be
influenced by cultural practices, and they have been used to explore the attitudes of
professions in relation to health care and health promotion!
•Special interest of MA is the study of ethno-medicine: an area of examining health
related beliefs, knowledge and practices of cultural groups!
•MA also explores both traditional healing & modern medical technologies
•Summary:MA explores health and illness within its cultural context bc culture in
relation to health is important to health in may ways
Culture and Health
•Defining culture is difficult as it is contested and debated concept!
•Culture: a collective beliefs, assumptions, and values that are communicated bw people
within a society (put simply) it is how we make sense of and understand the social world
in which we live !
•i.e.. attitudes about eating food: s/a eating food together with the family—are part of our
cultural patterns of behaviour OR health is culturally influenced with western societies
dominated by biomedical model of health!
•Health is cultural bc the process of giving meaning to behaviours and events s/a illness
occurrences is a cultural one, shaped by the context in which we live in !
•Evident when we consider that both our perceptions and experiences of health and illness
are influenced by culture and cultural norms!
•Therefore, culture not only determines health and illness but also shapes our perceptions
of illness and views of how we are expected to behave when we are ill!
•Culture is about meaning—a system of meanings and symbols that influence and shape the
way in which people view and define the social world!
•Culture is related to societal rules—hence diff. Societies have different rules and cultural
understandings, leading to an array of illness interpretations and experiences!
•Social norms indicate and prescribe attributes and trans in relation to health and illness—
peoples perceptions of heath and illness are shaped by the culture in which they are located!
•More examples pg 112!
•Health is not just embedded within the individuals or the social context, rather it is related to
a complex interaction between both!
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