Being a student who aspires to attend Medical School, I find Medical Anthropology very intriguing. Even though this is not one of the four main subfields mentioned from our lecture, it was claimed to be a fifth one. Medical Anthropology focuses on using anthropology to understand how human health and diseases, healthcare systems, and treatments are influenced and understood. While doing some research to find anthropology related to medicine, I came across the Society for Medical Anthropology (SMA). The SMA is a section of the American Anthropology Association (AAA). AAA contains many other sections as well.

Also, while digging more into the SMA website, I discovered that there are special interest groups within the Society for Medical Anthropology such as, Research on U.S. Health and healthcare (RUSH), Disability Research Interest Group (DRIG), and Council on Anthropology and Reproduction (CAR) to name a few. They do not limit themselves to one subject but expand their knowledge to various topics related to medicine and health.

While doing further investigating on the SMA website, I come across the Medical Anthropology Quarterly (MAQ), which is an international journal published by the SMA. This journal aims to encourage growth of theories and methods about medical anthropology. Also, they want to encourage discussion between medical anthropology and other neighboring fields. Plus, the MAQ provides the perk of including some full free articles and reviews, allowing everyone to access their book reviews/articles.

One article I read was titled, The Redistribution of Reproductive Responsibility: On the Epigenetics of “Environment” In Prenatal Interventions. This study was performed to understand how environmental conditions affect gene expression and development. The study was conducted in the United States and the United Kingdom and tested for the relationship between nutrition and obesity during pregnancy. Medical anthropology is used to analyze differences in the two regions and how they influence an individual’s health. I believe this is an important study because we are going to keep reproducing. Studies like this will not only allow us to understand if the factors will influence, but also how and why they influence.

Another article I read was To Keep this Disease from Killing You: Cultural Competence, Consonance, and Health among HIV -positive Women in Kenya. They state, “this biocultural study expands on earlier findings showing that knowledge of the model (competence) is a significant predictor of healthy by examining here how behavior consistent with that knowledge (consonance) affects health outcomes…”. This study is focusing on both biological and cultural influences that impact health. One of the conclusions this study drew was, that the illness also affects their social status. Therefore, it impacts their ability to work and receive medical care.

Overall, from what I have learned from this research is that one specific field of anthropology often relies on the use of other subfields of anthropology to develop a better understanding. For example, Medical anthropology encompasses different subfields of anthropology; such as biology, cultural, linguistic, and social. It is interesting how the location of where individuals reside, or the religion individuals’ practice can affect them greatly. I found it very interesting that medical anthropology uses the past and present to draw understandings of how thing have changed and how they may change. It does not simply focus on the past. Also, I have even more respect for anthropologist because they put so much effort into helping understand why things are the way they are. The MAQ provides a lot of informational research for those interested in learning more. Before this assignment, I simply though this course was ‘cool”. But by diving into these websites, I have learned how important anthropology is to humans.

Sources: http://medanthroquarterly.org/

http://www.medanthro.net/