Related Papers
Maternity in early and indigenous cultures
4P-17: Maternity in early and indigenous cultures
2024 •
Peter De Smet
Introduction to Medical Anthropology - ANTH 134 - Summer 2018
2018 •
Alberto Eduardo Morales
In this course, we explore the cultural and historical specificity of what appear to be biological givens, drawing from a variety of anthropological questions, theoretical approaches, and research techniques. We begin by examining the experience of illness and how understandings of disease and health are affected by - and in turn influence - social, cultural, and political concerns. We will approach biomedicine as one of many culturally produced medical systems, comparing ways of seeing and knowing across traditions and exploring the power of medicine to act as a form of social control. Finally, we will examine how local and global inequalities produce contemporary suffering and the role that anthropology might play in efforts to achieve greater health equity.
Traditional System of Medicine and Medical Anthropology: A Review
abhishek sharma
Medicinal Anthropology has risen as a basic sub-discipline of Anthropology in the contemporary world. Medical anthropologists have been studying different health beliefs and practices, which are practiced by various societies especially those systems which do not come under the genesis of modern medicine. The anthropological researches have revealed that every known human society has its own particular thought of illness and peculiar methods of cure. The investigation of Tribal health culture over the globe has received consideration of medical anthropologist in the recent years. The present research elucidates the concept of health and illness and what role medical anthropology has to play in the field of traditional medicine. It gives an account of traditional systems of medicine which are still practiced in India and other regions of the world. For a better understanding of the health care utilization and successful implementation of health policies, it is important to study indigenous medicinal systems and integrate these into the mainstream health programs. Some ethnobotanical studies in the Himalayan region document the rich flora of the area and the use of herbal remedies for a cure by indigenous healers present in rural societies. Integrating these systems into the mainstream health plans would be helpful in providing cure to all and save these systems from extinction.
Childbirth and women’s healthcare in pre-modern societies: an assessment (with Anna Andreeva and Susanne Töpfer). In A. Andreeva, E. Couto-Ferreira, S. Töpfer (eds.), Childbirth and women's healthcare across cultures. Dynamis 34/2 (2014), pp. 279-287.
M. Erica Couto-Ferreira
Traditional pharmacology and medicine in Africa: ethnopharmacological themes in sub-Saharan art objects and utensils
Traditional pharmacology and medicine in Africa Ethnopharmacological themes in sub-Saharan art objects and utensils
1998 •
Peter De Smet
Drawing from the general description that ethnopharmacology studies the human use of crude drugs and poisons in a traditional context, ethnopharmacological themes in native art can be defined as themes visualizing different features of traditional medicines and poisons, such as natural sources, methods of preparation, containers, usage and implements, target diseases and effects. This review documents that native African art objects and utensils are a goldmine of such ethnopharmacological themes by focusing on the following subjects: (a) objects related to the use of medicines (sources as well as tools for their collection, preparation and keeping); (b) objects related to the use of poisons (e.g. for ordeals, hunting and fishing); (c) objects related to the use of psychotropic agents (e.g. alcoholic beverages, kola nuts, smoking and snuffing materials); (d) pathological representations (e.g. treponematoses, leprosy, smallpox, swollen abdomen, scrotal enlargement, goiter and distorted faces); and (e) portrayals of certain types of treatment (e.g. topical instillations, perinatal care, and surgery). To avoid the impression that ethnopharmacology has little else to offer than armchair amusem*nt, an epilogue outlines the medical relevance of this interdisciplinary science for Western and African societies.
Some Cultural Aspects of Traditional Medicine, Traditional Religion and Gender
Rose+Croix Journal
This paper documents the responsibilities of spirit mediums in Zimbabwe and highlights gender balance in the systems. It reveals that the spirit of the same Gombwe may be on men, women, or objects, at different places at the same time and the choice is made by the spirit. Hence, gender balance is not an issue. The study also seeks to find out the views of African traditional medical practitioners about the way traditional medicine should develop: i.e., independent development, or integration, or assimilation into the conventional system. N'angas and herbalists had mixed feelings about the course of action to follow, but all, including maGombwe, agreed that there is need to develop traditional medicine. The government of Zimbabwe, like other governments in the Southern African Development Community region, supports the development of traditional medicine. Quelques aspects culturels de la médecine traditionnelle, de la religion traditionnelle, et des sexes au Zimbabwe Résumé : Cette études documente les responsabilités des esprits médiums au Zimbabwe et met en évidence la balance des sexes dans les systèmes. Elle révèle que l'esprit du même Gombwe peut être dans l'homme, la femme, ou les objets, à différents endroits en même temps, et le choix est fait par l'esprit. La balance des sexes n'est donc pas un problème. L'étude vise aussi à démontrer les opinions des praticiens africains de médecine traditionnelle quant à la façon dont la médecine traditionnelle devrait se développer : développement indépendant, ou intégration, ou assimilation dans le système conventionnel. N'angas et les herboristes avaient des sentiments ambivalents quant au plan d'action à suivre, mais tous, y compris maGombwe, sont d'accord qu'il y a un besoin de développer la médecine traditionnelle. Le gouvernement du Zimbabwe, tout comme les autres gouvernements dans la région de la Communauté du Développement du Sud de l'Afrique, supporte le développement de la médecine traditionnelle.
Sesia, P. 1996 ´Women come here on their own when they need to´: Prenatal care, authoritative knowledge, and maternal health in Oaxaca. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 10(2).
Paola María Sesia
12 257 Introduction to Medical Anthropology
2017 •
Emma Varley
Medical anthropology involves up-close, person-centered, and ethically engaged examination of the complex cultural dynamics that underpin and give rise not only to health and wellbeing, illness and death, but also the medical systems on which we rely for treatment and cure. This introductory course will first discuss the history and development of medical anthropology as a sub-discipline of sociocultural anthropology. We will briefly explore the multiple directions that medical anthropology has taken since its inception, and the interdisciplinary approaches, concepts, and theories so central to contemporary anthropologists’ research, outreach, and activism. We will also discuss the field-based methods used by medical anthropologists – and ethnographers in particular – to investigate how cultural forces shape issues of health, illness, and medicine. The course will next focus on recent theoretical and ethnographic developments, such as the evolution of meaning-centered and critical medical anthropology approaches. Special attention will be paid to anthropologists’ efforts to explore how bodies, health and illness, and also medical services and systems are at the nexus of – and bear the effects of - intersecting neoliberal and capitalistic forces. In addressing the ways that social, political, and economic systems give rise to health (in)equity and (in)justice, we will gain insights to the socially important and applied ways that ethnography pulls into view otherwise obscured or invisible experiences, and the forms of suffering and signs of hope these entail. To this end, we will work together to review critical theories and ethnographic case studies of health and medicine in North America and around the world.
Dossier: Childbirth and women's healthcare in pre-Modern Societies: an assessment, Dynamis Vol. 34.2 (2014)
2014 •
M. Erica Couto-Ferreira, Susanne Töpfer
"This dossier emerges from the workshop “Childbirth and Women's Health in Pre-Modern Societies” that took place in Heidelberg in November 4-5, 2011, and which aimed to offer different perspectives on how birth and the health problems related to it were conceptualized and practically dealt with in pre-modern times. The “pre-modern” here refers to that expanded set of multiple spatial, chronological and cultural conditions in which, through a variety of media, the human agents had learnt, transmitted and practiced medicine before (or in parallel to) the implementation of the historical scientific discourses that were to make a base for the present Western modes of interpretation. The role played by writing and the production of cultural knowledge in the whole process of conceptualizing, understanding, learning, and managing the complex experience of birth, therefore, represent the key element in the articulation of the whole thematic line of this monographic issue. We intend to present a picture of the medical spheres on pregnancy and birth in the ancient Near East and East-Asian systems, through addressing the same set of questions to the diverse sources available for each case study. This approach will serve the purpose of bringing to light how different disciplines, fields, and materials, have given answer to them." http://www.asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de/de/forschung/c-health-environment/c1/workshop-birth-and-womens-health-in-pre-modern-societies.html"
Indigenous Traditional Medicine Among the Hupdah of Rio Negro Region
Renato Athias
