Prior to the class, I hadn’t learned anything about medicine and culture. I always thought about the two separately, but after taking this class I realized that one affects the other. Each culture treats illnesses differently and none are exactly the same. I also took epidemiology while taking this class and it I thought that it was a good mix because even though anthropology and epidemiology are not the same studies, they are definitely related and a lot of the information was similar and interesting to learn about.
I believe that the biological/ecological approach was the most helpful to me. In the ecological the anthropologists study the populations and their relationship with the environment when trying to further understand disease. Biological anthropology explains how evolution and genetics influences the spread of disease. Both are very important approaches and have to do with how the environment influences various things. The picture at the bottom is the path of evolution.
What I learned that was most surprising and memorable was probably the clown doctors or shaman healers of western medicine. I found it shocking that peope would dress up as clowns and go into hospitals to boost the moral of the patients. Not only did it make all the patients feel better and change their moods, but studies showed that they actually relieved the pain of the patients. Some children dealing with emotional pain were not longer suffering because the clowns kept them entertained. The clown was compared to the shaman healers because both were atypical practices.
I wasn’t really too sure what kind of books or articles to add to the class that would fit well into the curriculum, but one idea could be to do certain assignments on anthropology news, so that we can keep up to date with all of the things going on in the anthropology world. Right now I am learning all the information regarding anthropology, but I haven’t really had a grasp for what is actually going on in the world as far as anthropology is concerned.
If I were to describe the value of medical anthropology to someone who wasn’t in the field I would say that it is the study of humans from the past, present, and future. Anthropology can help us understand the countless number of diseases that are out there by looking at many factors. It is far more important than many people think, but we are literally studying humans, it doesn’t really get more interesting than that.
Sources:
"Clown Doctors: Shaman Healers of Western Medicine." American Anthropological Association. Accessed August 5, 2014.
"Anthropology News." American Anthropological Association. Accessed August 5, 2014.
"Anthropology News." Gipom. Accessed August 5, 2014.
"Clown Doctors." Everyday Hero Australia: CLOWN DOCTORS EVENTS. Accessed August 1, 2014.
I believe that the biological/ecological approach was the most helpful to me. In the ecological the anthropologists study the populations and their relationship with the environment when trying to further understand disease. Biological anthropology explains how evolution and genetics influences the spread of disease. Both are very important approaches and have to do with how the environment influences various things. The picture at the bottom is the path of evolution.
What I learned that was most surprising and memorable was probably the clown doctors or shaman healers of western medicine. I found it shocking that peope would dress up as clowns and go into hospitals to boost the moral of the patients. Not only did it make all the patients feel better and change their moods, but studies showed that they actually relieved the pain of the patients. Some children dealing with emotional pain were not longer suffering because the clowns kept them entertained. The clown was compared to the shaman healers because both were atypical practices.
I wasn’t really too sure what kind of books or articles to add to the class that would fit well into the curriculum, but one idea could be to do certain assignments on anthropology news, so that we can keep up to date with all of the things going on in the anthropology world. Right now I am learning all the information regarding anthropology, but I haven’t really had a grasp for what is actually going on in the world as far as anthropology is concerned.
If I were to describe the value of medical anthropology to someone who wasn’t in the field I would say that it is the study of humans from the past, present, and future. Anthropology can help us understand the countless number of diseases that are out there by looking at many factors. It is far more important than many people think, but we are literally studying humans, it doesn’t really get more interesting than that.
Sources:
"Clown Doctors: Shaman Healers of Western Medicine." American Anthropological Association. Accessed August 5, 2014.
"Anthropology News." American Anthropological Association. Accessed August 5, 2014.
"Anthropology News." Gipom. Accessed August 5, 2014.
"Clown Doctors." Everyday Hero Australia: CLOWN DOCTORS EVENTS. Accessed August 1, 2014.