"Anthropology examines diverse aspects of human social life, its processes and causes and the interrelations of with other disciplines such as human biology, ecology, economics, politics and religion". As a subfield, medical anthropology emphasizes on the interrelationships of society, culture and biology and is the anthropological field most central to public health (Hahn, 2009). Public health anthropology has developed substantially with growing interest during past 20 years. It studies what culture causes consequences of health events among population and it is beyond biological aspects of health (Sax, 2014). One of the essential components is health seeking behaviour which is what people do when they get sick, for instances, going to clinics or quacks, treating at home with remedy, or with diet, or doing exercise, etc. Those practices are not universal and they depend on economic, gender, age, and many other socio-cultural factors.
There is a tacit separation between ‘science’ and ‘culture’. Scientific knowledge has been influenced by complex social processes. Public health anthropology embraces a ‘factorial’ model of disease in which social and cultural factors are included. It is important to document and understand the changing distribution of diseases within and between populations. Appropriate and effective public health interventions cannot be formulated without incorporating the biological and social sciences (Parker and Harper, 2006).
Culture consists not only of ideas and beliefs, but also the practices. Cultural diversities are widely ranged from different languages, religion, dress, kinship system to the varied level of knowledge, perceptions and practices regarding illness. "Health Belief Model" explains...
... middle of paper ...
...dbirth once she think her in safe condition. The long established role of TBA in community and other local beliefs and norms also hamper delivery at health centers. At this point, what I believe would work is that we should engage all the self explanatory models of public health workers, clinicians and local community, and then sort out the most effective interventions for safe delivery among rural mothers.
To conclude, it is irrefutable that natural science are nowadays more valued and more funded but are working in very inefficient way to improve health. It is less conscious that the biggest gain in health is from primary prevention which is again interrelated with both public health and anthropology. Therefore, future public health interventions must be formulated and comprehended by communicating through concepts of disease in different cultural settings.
Jean Giddens (2013) defines culture as “a pattern of shared attitudes, beliefs, self-definitions, norms, roles, and values that can occur among those who speak a particular language, or live in a defined geographical region.” (Giddens, 2013). A person’s culture influences every aspect that person’s life. Beliefs affected by culture include how someone interacts within the family, how to raise children, the types of foods eaten, the style of clothes chosen, which religion is practiced, and the style of communication (including verbal, and body language, slang used etc.) (Giddens, 2013). In addition to these beliefs, health care practices are also affected by culture. The cause
As the quintessential Medical Anthropologist Dr. Paul Farmer’s book Aids and Accusation is the typical representative of the interpretivist approach which studies health systems as systems of meaning. So, this works under the belief that people make their own choices and are not connected to laws of science or nature. The research in this field tends to be done from an objective point of view, greater detail, and looks at culture and how people live their lives, therefore obtaining high validity because it is a true representation and is trustworthy.
Haitian culture offers a wide range of explanation for illness based upon the social, cultural and religious beliefs. The explanations are also dependent upon the locations and the class. They hold multiple views since they mainly rely on hybrid models which eventually lead them to consult for an illness from different persons.
Perez, M. A. & Luquis, R.R. (2009). Cultural competence in health education and health promotion. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, CA.
... becoming malnourished. Medically related subjects are effected by cultural in all areas on the world for the wide cultural diversity.
Through showing the different definitions of health, the authors explain how those different understandings affect patterns of behavior on health depend on different cultures. In addition, an analysis of the models of health demonstrates even western medical approaches to health have different cognitions, same as the Indigenous health beliefs. The most remarkable aspect is a balance, a corresponding core element in most cultures which is an important consideration in Indigenous health as well. From an Indigenous perspective, health is considered as being linked, and keeping the connection is a priority to preserve their health. Consequently, health is a very much culturally determined. Health practitioners should anticipate and respect the cultural differences when they encounter a patient from various cultures. In particular, this article is good to understand why the Indigenous health beliefs are not that different than western medicine views using appropriate examples and comparative composition, even though the implementation the authors indicated is a bit abstract, not
William, W. D. (2004). Culture and the risk of disease. British Medical Bulletin, 69, 21-31. doi: 10.1093/bmb/ldh020
...n Health and Disease: The Hidden Epidemic. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 19 Feb 2012.
While illnesses are cross-culturally relevant, the symptoms and duration do vary depending on cultures. This seems to show that while the source of abnormal behavior is universal, the actual abnormal behaviors that arise are culturally
Robert Desjarlais, A Reader in Medical Anthropology Theoretical Trajectories, Emergent Realities (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010) 160.
This includes their family, religion, race, ethnicity, and kinship. All of these play a role in the person’s cultural behavior. These are the things that are acquired or not genetically given. Communication refers to verbal and nonverbal forms of interacting. This includes spoken, written, gestures, body language, space, and facial expressions. The last aspect is environmental control. Understanding different cultures view on when they seek health care related to their environmental control is important. Different cultures seek health care based on their culture’s views of illness and disease, their medical practices, and their use of folk medicine (Giger,
Culture has a direct influence on people’s health, illness and healing, as well as the way they perceive their own health and the approaches they take when looking for health care services. The same way, culture could impact the manner that health care providers deliver their services because they can be influenced by their own belief and values (Edelman et al, 2014).
In some way, public health is seen as a modern philosophical and ideological perspective based on ‘equity’ and aimed to determine inequitable in society. It seen as a ‘science’ and ‘art’ in the sense that it deals with the cause of disease, treatment of illness as well as it involves laboratory experiments, intervention and promoting of health of the population. Winslow (1920, p. 23) defined public health as ‘the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting physical health and efficiency through organised community efforts for the sanitation of the environment, the control community infections, the education of the individual in principles of personal hygiene, the organisation of medical and nursing service for early diagnosis and preventive treatment of disease, and the development of social machinery which will ensure to every individual in the community a standard of living adequate for the maintenance of health. On the other hand, it is ‘the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through organised effort of society’ (Acheson, 1998; in Cowley S, 2002, p. 261).
To further introduce Medical Anthropology, I will reiterate highlights of my previous presentations. Early on in Turkey, I asked each person in our program the following question: "I would like you to tell me about health and what it means to you?" The answers to this question varied widely, making it difficult to define a global conception of health. In analyzing the answers, I established the following five components of health:
Sociology of Health and Illness The sociological approaches focus on identifying the two sociological theories. We critically analysed the biomedical model and doctor-patient relationship. We also evaluated how the medical professionals exercise social control and the medical professional’s contribution to ill health. The difference between society and health is studied by sociologists in relation to health and illness.