Chapter 4
Ethnomedicine
A health system encompasses many areas: perceptions and classifications of health problems, prevention measures, diagnosis, healing, and healers
Contemporary Western biomedicine (WDM), a healing approach based on modern Western science that emphasizes technology in diagnosing and treating health problems related to the human body, is an ethnomedical system
Defining and Classifying Health Problems
One set of concepts that medical anthropologists use to sort out the many cross-cultural labels and perceptions is the disease-illness dichotomy
To learn how people label, categorize, and classify health problems
Knowledgeable elders are the keepers of ethnomedical knowledge and they pass it down through oral traditions
Subanun people had substantial knowledge about health problems
Skin diseases are common afflictions among the Subanun and have several degrees of specificity
Western biomedicine: panels of medical experts have to agree about how to label and classify health problems according to scientific criteria
Western medical manuals are biased toward diseases that Western biomedicine recognizes, and they ignore health problems that other cultures recognize
Culture-specific syndrome: a health problem with a set of symptoms associated with a particular culture
Social factors such as stress, fear, or shock often are the underlying causes of culture-specific syndromes
Somatization refers to the process through which the body absorbs social stress and manifests symptoms of suffering
Researchers analyzed many cases of susto in three villages, they found that the people most likely to be afflicted were those who were socially marginal or experiencing a sense of role failure
Ethno-Etiologies
People in all cultures attempt to make sense of health problems and try to understand their cause, or etiology
The term ethno-etiology refers to a cross-culturally specific causal explanation for health problems and suffering
In the psychosocial domain, emotions such
A health system encompasses many areas: perceptions and classifications of health problems, prevention measures, diagnosis, healing, and healers
Contemporary Western biomedicine (WDM), a healing approach based on modern Western science that emphasizes technology in diagnosing and treating health problems related to the human body, is an ethnomedical system
Defining and Classifying Health Problems
One set of concepts that medical anthropologists use to sort out the many cross-cultural labels and perceptions is the disease-illness dichotomy
To learn how people label, categorize, and classify health problems
Knowledgeable elders are the keepers of ethnomedical knowledge and they pass it down through oral traditions
Subanun people had substantial knowledge about health problems
Skin diseases are common afflictions among the Subanun and have several degrees of specificity
Western biomedicine: panels of medical experts have to agree about how to label and classify health problems according to scientific criteria
Western medical manuals are biased toward diseases that Western biomedicine recognizes, and they ignore health problems that other cultures recognize
Culture-specific syndrome: a health problem with a set of symptoms associated with a particular culture
Social factors such as stress, fear, or shock often are the underlying causes of culture-specific syndromes
Somatization refers to the process through which the body absorbs social stress and manifests symptoms of suffering
Researchers analyzed many cases of susto in three villages, they found that the people most likely to be afflicted were those who were socially marginal or experiencing a sense of role failure
Ethno-Etiologies
People in all cultures attempt to make sense of health problems and try to understand their cause, or etiology
The term ethno-etiology refers to a cross-culturally specific causal explanation for health problems and suffering
In the psychosocial domain, emotions such