Exploring Medical Anthropology

by Joralemon, Donald

• ISBN13: 9780205270064
• ISBN10: 0205270069
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-01-01
• Publisher: Allyn & Bacon

Summary

This book is a concise and readable introduction to medical anthropology, drawn from the author's research on Peruvian shamanism and organ transplantation in the United States. The author uses this ethnographic material from South America and the U.S. to illustrate the points of the book. These points are: 1) that biology and culture matter equally in the human experience of disease, 2) that the political economy is a primary epidemiological factor, 3) that ethnography is an essential tool to understand human suffering due to disease, and 4) that medical anthropology can help to alleviate human suffering.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
What's So Cultural about Disease?	1	(16)
Culture in Medicine	2	(6)
Disease in Other Cultures and Times	3	(1)
Impact of Culture on Contemporary Biomedicine	4	(4)
Development of Medical Anthropology	8	(3)
Medicine as a Social Process: William H. R. Rivers	8	(1)
Functional Views of Medicine: Erwin Ackerknecht	9	(1)
Applied Roots of Medical Anthropology	10	(1)
Medical Anthropology Today	11	(1)
Summary: Placing Medical Anthropology among the Social Sciences of Medicine	12	(1)
Suggested Readings	13	(1)
Notes	14	(3)
Anthropological Questions and Methods in the Study of Sickness and Healing	17	(14)
Studying Shamans in Peru	18	(4)
Research Questions	18	(2)
Research Methods	20	(1)
From Fieldwork to Analysis and Interpretation	20	(2)
Studying Medicine in the United States	22	(7)
Organ Transplantation as an Anthropological Subject	22	(1)
Research Questions	23	(4)
Research Methods	27	(2)
Summary: Anthropological Vision	29	(1)
Suggested Readings	30	(1)
Notes	30	(1)
Recognizing Biological, Social, and Cultural Interconnections: Evolutionary and Ecological Perspectives on a Cholera Epidemic	31	(14)
Thinking about Epidemics	32	(1)
History and Biology of Cholera	33	(2)
Epidemiological Accounts of Peru's Cholera Epidemic	35	(1)
Evolution and the Ecological Framework	36	(2)
Cholera and the Evolutionary Framework	38	(2)
Medical Anthropology Embraces the Ecological/Evolutionary Model	40	(3)
Suggested Readings	43	(1)
Notes	43	(2)
Expanding the Vision of Medical Anthropology: Critical and Interpretive Views of the Cholera Epidemic	45	(16)
Political-Economy of Cholera	46	(3)
Political-Economic versus Ecological/Evolutionary Perspectives	49	(2)
Interpretive View of Cholera	51	(5)
Taking a Broader, Inclusive Perspective	56	(2)
Suggested Readings	58	(1)
Notes	58	(3)
Healers and the Healing Professions	61	(20)
Healing Roles: Organizing the Diversity	62	(2)
Health Care Sectors	62	(1)
Healers' Relationships between and within Health Care Sectors	63	(1)
Authority of Healers	64	(2)
Social and Cultural Dimensions: General Concepts	64	(1)
Therapy Outcome and Healer Authority	65	(1)
Authority in the Folk Health Sector: Position of Peruvian Curanderos	66	(1)
Social Authority of Peruvian Curanderos	66	(1)
Outcome of Curandero Therapy	66	(1)
Cultural Authority of Curanderos	67	(1)
Authority in the Professional Health Care Sector: Case of Biomedicine	67	(3)
What Sets Biomedicine Apart?	67	(1)
Social Authority of Biomedical Healers	68	(1)
Outcome of Biomedical Healing	69	(1)
Cultural Authority of Biomedicine	69	(1)
Challenges to Biomedical Authority	70	(3)
Economic Critique and Biomedicine's Social Authority	70	(1)
Clinical Critique and Biomedicine's Cultural Authority	71	(1)
Outcome Critique	72	(1)
Impact of the Critiques	73	(1)
Authority of Biomedicine in Non-Western Countries	73	(4)
Good News, Bad News	73	(2)
Importance of Primary Health Care	75	(1)
Alma Ata and PHC in Question: Biomedicine Reasserts Its Authority	76	(1)
Conclusion	77	(1)
Suggested Readings	77	(1)
Notes	78	(3)
Applying Medical Anthropology	81	(20)
Medical Anthropology in International Development: A Brief History	84	(4)
Anthropological Trouble-Shooters, 1945-1973	84	(2)
Disenchantment and Disengagement	86	(1)
Social Soundness Guidelines and the Return of Applied Anthropology, 1973-1980	87	(1)
Reagan/Bush Years (1981-1993) and Beyond	88	(1)
Work of Applied Medical Anthropologists in International Contexts	88	(3)
Growth and Nutrition: An Educatinal Project in Indonesia	89	(1)
Medical Anthropology and HIV/AIDS Prevention: Sex Workers in Zaire	90	(1)
Applying Medical Anthropology in the United States	91	(3)
Case for Anthropology in the Medical School Curriculum	92	(1)
Special Challenge of Introducing Anthropology to Medical Students	93	(1)
Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Applied Medical Anthropology under Attack	94	(3)
Critical Medical Anthropology Assault on Applied Medical Anthropology	94	(1)
Response from Applied Medical Anthropologists	95	(2)
Personal Reflections	97	(1)
Conclusion	98	(1)
Suggested Readings	99	(1)
Notes	99	(2)
Anthropology and Medical Ethics	101	(18)
Medical Ethics: A Comparative Framework	102	(3)
Terminological Concerns	102	(1)
Question of Ethical Universals	103	(2)
Medical Ethics beyond Biomedicine	105	(3)
Medical Ethics in Small-Scale Societies	105	(1)
Ethics and Folk Healers	106	(1)
Ethics in the Great Traditions of Medicine	106	(2)
Development of Bioethics in the United States	108	(2)
Historical Perspective	108	(1)
Manifestations of Bioethics in Public Life	108	(1)
Deliberating Bioethics	109	(1)
Social Sciences and Bioethics	110	(1)
Social Science: Out of the Closet	111	(4)
Case of the Non-Heart-Beating Cadaver	111	(3)
Moral Passion and Social Science?	114	(1)
Medical Anthropology in Bioethics	115	(1)
Suggested Readings	115	(1)
Notes	116	(3)
A Look Back and a Glance Ahead	119	(8)
Advantages of Medical Anthropology	120	(1)
Sensitivity for Culture and Biology	120	(1)
Recognition That the Political-Economy Has Health Implications	121	(1)
Insistence on the Value of Ethnography	121	(1)
Commitment to Applying Medical Anthropology	121	(1)
Thinking Anthropologically about HIV/AIDS	121	(2)
AIDS and the Culture-Biology Interface	122	(1)
Political-Economic Factors in the Pandemic	122	(1)
AIDS Ethnography and Its Contribution to Prevention Planning	123	(1)
Directions for Future Work in Medical Anthropology	123	(2)
Culture, Health, and Science: A Model for Undergraduate Study	123	(1)
Academic and Professional Career Paths Related to Medical Anthropology	124	(1)
Conclusion	125	(1)
Suggested Readings	125	(1)
Notes	126	(1)
Glossary	127	(4)
References	131