Reflecting on medical anthropology
Anthropology is an extremely useful discipline of study, despite the fact that it is relatively new. Throughout the past half century, the importance of anthropology has proven itself in a number of ways. Before taking this class, I didn’t take into consideration how interconnected culture is with every other aspect of human life, and how complex its relationship with medicine actually is. I am lucky enough to have a cultural background that is very different from western culture, yet I still wasn’t even aware of all the complications of implementing health care programs in different cultures. There are so many different factors to consider when dealing with illnesses around the world, and it is a mistake to think that just because western society welcomes certain practices and ideas about medicine, that the rest of the world will do the same. As the most developed and most powerful society in the world, it is our responsibility to become more aware and sensitive of the cultures in which we are trying to help. This is the most important concept I learned in this class, and it is also why I believe anthropology is vital to fully understand disease and illnesses as it pertains to the human race. For example, the presence of anthropologists in Guinea to help with the Ebola outbreak proved to be very effective. Before organizations such as WHO and Doctors Without Borders started bringing anthropologists to the region, the medical staff on site had much difficulty communicating with local families effectively (NPR). The medical staff was not sensitive to the issues that families had with bringing in their sick family members to be isolated and probably not return. They failed to properly inform the people of Guinea of what they were trying to do, and obviously did not see the importance. However, with anthropologists there to help doctors and medical staff understand the views of the local population, the people were less resentful and more willing to cooperate. To someone who didn’t know anything about anthropology, as I didn’t before this class, I would tell them to think about how many different types of people there are in the world. And then to think about how many different types of illnesses there are. I would explain that there is no one universal way to recognize and treat all of these illnesses, and that medical anthropology helps to understand ways in which they should be dealt with.
The anthropological approaches that I believe will help me to understand illness in the future as medical professional are the experiential and ethnomedical approaches. In this day and age, one thing that the medical profession is seriously lacking is sensitivity to people’s comforts and needs. Doctors are so used to viewing illnesses simply as biological faults, that they forget a whole experience comes along with being ill, and that it is different for everyone. Because I’ve learned the importance of taking this into consideration, as well as how effective being sensitive to other cultures is, I will be able to take care of my patients much better.
The Interpretation of Cultures by Clifford Geertz would have been an interesting book to read during this course, as it pertains to the importance of culture and how it shapes the human experience. Geertz believed that the role of anthropologists was to try to interpret the guiding symbols of each culture, which I think would fit well with our discussions of culture in this class.
The anthropological approaches that I believe will help me to understand illness in the future as medical professional are the experiential and ethnomedical approaches. In this day and age, one thing that the medical profession is seriously lacking is sensitivity to people’s comforts and needs. Doctors are so used to viewing illnesses simply as biological faults, that they forget a whole experience comes along with being ill, and that it is different for everyone. Because I’ve learned the importance of taking this into consideration, as well as how effective being sensitive to other cultures is, I will be able to take care of my patients much better.
The Interpretation of Cultures by Clifford Geertz would have been an interesting book to read during this course, as it pertains to the importance of culture and how it shapes the human experience. Geertz believed that the role of anthropologists was to try to interpret the guiding symbols of each culture, which I think would fit well with our discussions of culture in this class.
I thought this comic was funny as it pertains to the importance of being sensitive to other cultures as learned in anthropology. In this cartoon, the character on the wheel is using his "cultural custom" in hopes that the other character will not kill him, but then he counterpoints with saying killing him is part of his culture, and to not impose his values on him.
Sources:
"Búhos En El ágora." Búhos En El ágora. Accessed August 15, 2014.
"Cultural Anthropology." Cultural Anthropology. Accessed August 15, 2014. http://victorhernandezsangcablog.blogspot.com/.
Poon, Linda. "Why Anthropologists Join An Ebola Outbreak Team." NPR. January 1, 2014. Accessed August 13, 2014. http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/04/02/298369305/why-anthropologists-join-an-ebola-outbreak-team?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=share&utm_medium=twitter.
Yarrow, Andrew. "Clifford Geertz, Cultural Anthropologist, Is Dead at 80." The New York Times. October 31, 2006. Accessed August 13, 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/01/obituaries/01geertz.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.