This week, I will be focusing on the subset of medical anthropology and how this field contributes to the broader themes of anthropology as a hole. First, some definitions. Anthropology itself is the study of human societies and cultures and their development, and based on what we learned in lecture, it is obviously not that simple. there are tons of different approaches, sub-fields, and specialties that come with it. One of the approaches of anthropology, medical anthropology, is defined as a subfield of anthropology that draws upon social, cultural, biological, and linguistic anthropology to better understand those factors which influence health and well being. Personally, I want to be a primary care physician, specifically a pediatrician. With that being said, it is clear as to why this subset of anthropology is very important to me.
The organization that I will be talking about today is the society for medical anthropology (SMA). The society for medical anthropology was formed in 1967, with a goal to bring together medical anthropology graduate students, practicing anthropologists, scholars, and scholar activists. The SMA first met in Berkeley, CA, and was conceived and published in a newsletter.
On the society for medical anthropology website, the issues that medical anthropologists study are mentioned. One that i want to focus on is the experience of illness and social relations of sickness. In my opinion, the importance of this issue can not be understates or underestimated. When reading what this issue is all about on the website, they talk about the different perceptions of illness based on culture and social relations, and the different ways that physicians can deal with them. For example, with some mental illnesses, some cultures not only diagnose mental illnesses much different than others, but the patients don’t always listen to the advice of the physician. To be specific, in some cultures such as the Netherlands or Switzerland, mental health has no stigmas attached, and just like people go to well visits to check their physical health, people there also routinely check their mental health. in contrast, here in the united states, there is a large stigma attached to having mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, etc, so even if a doctor diagnoses you, the patient might not want to listen to them because of the stigma attached to it.
With that being said, I believe that have a subset of anthropology that focuses on how culture can affect a diagnosis or the perception of disease or illness is incredibly important for anthropology as a hole. It allows people to think more broadly and more “outside the box” when talking about medicine and science, and how other factors can play into a persons health.
Hi,
I found your post about medical anthropology extremely interesting. I also went through the website of “mednathro.net” and saw how long ago this society was created, 1967. Additionally, I found it interesting when talking about mental illnesses and the stigmatism that follows it within America versus in different cultures such as the Netherlands or Switzerland. Just recently a old friend from high school disappeared as he suffered from depression and went for a walk in the woods and has not been seen since. This kind of anthropology that focuses on how cultures affect perceptions of diseases or illnesses can definitely be important and I relate strongly with your post. Thank you for bringing a perspective of a different sub-field of medical anthropology.