My country that I have selected is India and I will be using the The critical and medical anthropology approach based on the malnutrition issue with young girls and women. The critical and medical anthropology theory talks about what political and social power and economic factors determine who suffers and who benefits the most (Lecture 1.4). In india, they are socially constructed by a caste system that determines how much power, income level and education you have (BBC News).
In rural India, there is a high percentage of women who suffer from malnutrition due to their poor environment, lack of access to resources, and being at the lower level of the caste system. With that being said since women do not have much access to clean water and a healthy and quality diet they often have health issues as well such as anemia. Anemia is a lack of red blood cells resulting in women feeling fatigue and weariness (NHLBI). From the Medical Anthropology perspective this shows that rural India is suffering from malnutrition while urban India is the region that is getting most of the benefits and doesn’t have these same issues because they are likely at a higher level in the caste system and have more access to resources than the women in rural India.
In the journal A Companion to Medical Anthropology, it talks about how socio-cultural and political power play a part in explaining illnesses with a foucs on biocultural focuses. (Singer and Erickson 2011). The biocultural approaches is to help see human biology as a culturally and socially. Between rural and urban India we can see how these two factors can play a part with malnutrition. In rural India it is common for the women to be undernourished and and when they give birth it is more than likely that their children will be undernourished as well. So in rural India they have an intergenerational structure where generations after generations will undergo the same low social factors the past generations have endured due to india’s caste system and their being a lack of social mobility in the caste system. While on the other hand urban India doesn’t have this problem. They will continue to have access to resources and a healthy lifestyle while the poor keeps suffering.
In the chapter, Critical Biocultural Approaches in Medical Anthropology, Leatherman and Goodman state “Many biocultural studies do not fully consider political–economic processes and relations of power and inequality (i.e., the critical side of critical biocultural). How- ever, most all acknowledge the importance of these processes in shaping human biology and health.” Furthermore, we can see how there is a lack of how these factors play a part when it comes to health. But the Medical Anthropology is the best theory to approach and explain malnutrition in rural India because it will help examine the disparities rural India faces. It will help break down how the caste system and patriarchy system are a few factors of the big factors as to why women are undernourished and how this could possibly be fixed in the future.
References
“Anemia.” National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/anemia.
Department of Anthropology. “Introducing Theory 3: Critical Medical Anthropological Theory.” Women and Health, Department of Anthropology, 23 May 2019, anthropology.msu.edu/anp270-us19/lecture-videos/critical-medical-anthropological-theory/.
Leatherman, Tom, and Alan H. Goodman. “Critical Biocultural Approaches in Medical Anthropology.” A Companion to Medical Anthropology, 2011, pp. 29–48., doi:10.1002/9781444395303.ch2.
Sobo, Elisa J. “Medical Anthropology in Disciplinary Context: Definitional Struggles and Key Debates (or Answering the Cri Du Coeur).” A Companion to Medical Anthropology, 2011, pp. 7–28., doi:10.1002/9781444395303.ch1.
“What Is India’s Caste System?” BBC News, BBC, 19 June 2019, www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35650616.