• The application of anthropological theories and methods to question of health, illness, medicine and healing. 
• Medicine is not simply an applied science  
• contemporary medical anthropology: Ecology and evolution- behavioral and biological adaptation 

4 historical antecedence

1. biological anthropology 
2. Early ethnographic fieldwork 
3. studies of "national characters" and deviance 
4. international public health movement: the importance of understanding peoples culture; taking westernized medical sanitation but was not successful. example: the teaching of boiling water before drinking it. 

• Aspect of cultural system concerns with sickness and healing in integrated ways; not solely scientific and material but also ideational; such as: (1) individual experiences, (2) knowledge, meaning,  practice, (3) social, political, economical aspects, (4) environment, ecology
• ethnomedicine draws distinction between the traditional system and scientific system (biomedicine is exempt from this scrutiny), this category was set up to opposition our system. 

• exposer to infection at a early age is actually protective in term of future allergic diseases
• being exposed to infection will produce T1 cells in which will suppress the T2 cells from attacking allergens 
• autoimmune disorders as a result of being too clean 
• examples: Kids who live on farms, and go to daycare  have least allergies, first born child is most likely to have asthma. 

• Deaf- profound hearing loss, so sever that amplification does not help; are individuals who identify themselves as being apart of the deaf community 
• view deafness as a difference rather than a disability, they are proud and happy of their deafness and would not chose to be hearing. 
• deaf- refers to everyone with a profound hearing loss, but seek out to find away to be hearing again, and use oral English. 
• ASL is the third most used language in the U.S. 
• A deaf child must learn a language by the age of 3 
• Socioeconomic impact: lower than the average hearing person 
• "Blindness cuts you from objects, but deafness cuts you from people 
• Film: Sound and Furry 

• health: is not merely to the absence of disease, but a state of physical, social and psychological well-being
• Illness: incorporates the experience of the suffers perception of alternations in health informed by broader social and cultural meaning 
• Disease: formal, professional category 
• Illness without disease
• disease without illness

• measles outbreak 
• lived in small villages, they believed when contract from outside people they would be exposed to the measles
• 94% were never exposed to the measles
• Epidemic: dry season(traveled only during the dry season b/c couldn't during the wet season): traveled to mission ports, feasting, raiding, trading, exposed at mission ports and infected others during the incubating period
• they believed that all parts of the dead must be destroyed to be able to move on to the next world
• they also believed that spirits were causing the disease, when they saw that the disease was spreading they would curl up and hide in their hamks  

• 4 Humors and corresponding elements

1. blood: hot and wet; like air; spring 
2. phlegm: cold and wet; like water; Winter 
3. Yellow Bile/Choler: hot and dry; like fire; summer 
4. Black Bile/Melancholy: cold and dry; like earth; Fall 

tied to seasons and temperaments 

diagnoses imbalance,prescribe treatment to restore balance

Balance=Healthy

Imbalance=Illness 

Domain: content of knowledge and practice 

Socialization: the teaching of the domain 

Arena: the place in which the activities are conducted

• is the removal section of bone from the skull, which removes evil spirits, illness, etc. 
• was the health care and medical knowledge of the Neandethrals 
• was used to treat skull fractures, epilepsy,and was used to liberate the soul in the body, to lead spirits out of the head, and treated wounds. 

Social Mortality 

• includes infanticide, geronticide, sacrifices, and warfare- killing as a result of social constructs
• western culture prefers to have a have a quick painless death where as eastern culture prefer to have a longer illness
• it is unholy to have a quick painless death 

Witches: power within them, identified by accusation 

Sorcerers: proclaim their power, markable skills (evil) 

Shaman: religious/traditional healers, treat illness by enter the supernatural world, altered state of consciousness, possession, they must do a well job or will be accused of being a sorcerer. mordern shamans incorporate more westernized medicine in their practice 

• Traditional chinese medicine; focus on vital energy, energy flow affects well-being, must be balanced. 
• QI: vital life force, blocked QI causes illness 
• Yin and Yang: primordial element: interdependent opposites

• Hmong believe that illness is caused by soul loss
• The spirits can take the soul/souls can be scared out of the body 
• Healing practices involve getting the soul back or balancing the soul 

• a society's customs and ideas should be described objectively and understood in the context of that society
• analytical position 
• does not approve or disapprove of different cultures

Explanatory Models (EMS)/Arthur Kleinman 

• Arthur Kleinman- a physician and anthropologist
• He introduced the Explanatory Model- is the notion about an episode of those engaged in clinical process
• EMS are held by both patients (and families) and practitioners 
• EMS explains causes, symptoms, pathophysiology, natural hisotry, severity, and treatment
• "Klienman's 8"- Faudiman called Klienman, while working on his book, he asked him to explain Lia Lee's EMS, he responds: if we believe in our biomedical system how do you expect someone who has a different believe/health culture to believe ours. 

• She was interested in the immune system and how people viewed the immune system 
• she interviewed 3 people: 

1. biomedical Scientist- military metaphor 
2. Complementary/alternative healers- immune system key to their modality 
3. "Lay" People: their perspective was balance. when they were asked to draw a picture of the immune system they drew dancers 

Active, purposeful intervention of a sensate agent 

Supernatural: God 

Nonhuman being: ghost, ancestor, evil spirits

Human being: witches, sorcerers 

The point of this system is that you do something to harm one of these people to deserve your illness

Impersonal, functional, systematic, equilibrium 

Balance=Health 

Imbalance=Illness

Example: Humoral System 

3 persepectives: 

magical- illness results from magical manipulation of force through witchcraft and sorcery. 

Religious- illness controlled by supernatural powers

naturalistic-illness subject to natural law 

Illness Causation: 

witchcraft and sorcery 

breach of taboo 

disease-object intrusion 

spirit intrusion 

soul loss 

imbalance 

Interconnectedness, interdependence 

Different healing styles influence one another 

public, formal, autobiographical illness narrative

Languages at Risk 

Language of Epidemiology 

Language of clinical biomedicine 

Lay Language 

Pingelap- the island of the colorblind

island in the Pacific ocean in which many of the inhabitants are colorblind.

There was a terrible storm with few survivors. One was colorblind and after generations of inbreeding the number of colorblind people greatly increased.

Achromatopsia- a vision disorder 

they have good night vision and wear sunglasses during the day 

Complementary Medicine: is the practice of medicine that combines traditional and alternative medicine 

Alternative Medicine: spiritual healing; nonwestern medicine 

Integrative Medicine: is a practice of medicine that reaffirms the importance of relationship between practitioners and patient and focuses on the whole person

Cultural Ecology 

how cultural beliefs and practices shape human behavior and adaptation 

Example:cultural practice in Vietnam aimed at avoiding Malaria (they built their houses on stills), cultural practice allows them to avoid disease

Political Ecology 

Effects of political conflict, economics and resource inequality 

Example:Malaria has different distributions in different places based on SES, wealthy people don't get it