Anthropology Unit 3
What role does anthropology play in public health problems?
Anthropologist Paul Farmer was encouraged by a local Anglican priest in Canage, Haiti, to launch what became Zanmi Lasante, or Partners in health. Zanmi Lasante used a census to determine what Cange need, then bagn to build infrastructure to provide clean water, sanitation and hygiene, and exanded schools to villagers.
What is the difference between biomedicine and ethnomedicine?
Biomedicine: Seeks to apply the principles of biology and the natural sciences to disease diagnosis and healing. Ethnomedicine: Refers to local systems of health and healing rooted in culturally specific norms and values.
What role does social inequality play in an individual's health, illness, and understanding of sickness?
CRITICAL MEDIAL ANTH. Healthcare, many people woiuld argue woman of color, live in poverty. Healthcare is the power of health, wealth, life expectancy is high, new technologies and new cures.
Harry Potter's magic wand is an example of what kind of magic. Explain your answer.
Contagious magic
What is the difference between a technocratic approach to childbirth and a humanistic one?
tech: u treat childbirth as a medical procedure. hospital, white gowns humanistic: at home, mid-wives more humanistic approach, a natural procedure
What does Max Weber have to do with our understanding of religion?
tied prodicents to secularism. the better you worked the better chance you have in the after life. Most highly developed countries have done that. Become more secular. America is not becoming more secular.
What is the difference between imitative and contagious magic?
imitative magic: A ritual performance that achieves efficacy by limitating the desired magical result contagious magic: Ritual words or performances that achieve efficacy as certain materials that come into contact with one person carry a magical connection that allows power to be transferred from person to person.
Explain why a brain surgeon is not a practitioner of ethnomedicine.
A brain surgeon is not a practitioner of ethnomedicine because enthomedicine refers to local systems of health and healing rooted in culturally specific norms and values not surgery. RELIES ON SCIENCE
Who are Victor Turner and Emile Durkheim?
Emile Durkheim: The Sacred and the Profane. Defined religion as a collective action of religious rituals through which group members reaffirm, clarify, and define for one another the dichotomy of what is sacred & profane. He saw religion as a social process that plays a crucial role in combatting anomie or normessness (a social condition in which there is a disintegration or disappearance of the norms & values that were previously common to society) by creating social solidarity, cohesion, and stability. The Koreshan Unity Settlement of Estero, FL: an example of Durkheim's "single moral community", they lived in a community in a search for the ideal. Their philosophy was "we live inside the world, as the Earth is the universe." Victor Turner: studied the chisungu (girls learned secret terms, songs, and behaviors approved for women), and an elaborate rite of passage for womanhood among the Bemba people. He theorized the power of ritual comes come the drama contained within it, in which the normal structure of social life is symbolically dissolved and reconstituted. Turner considered pilgramage a unique form of religious ritual , since it involves the same three stages and creates a sense of communitas amongst pilgrims who have undertaken the same journey. The hajj to Mecca is one of the many important religious pilgrimages. The ppilgrimage from Chaco Canyon in New Mexico for the Ancient Puebloan people is another example of a shared religious ritual.
Explain the Yam cycle.
Large, ceremonial yams are the central focus of Abelam life. ●The yearly cycle begins with a formal ceremony called waapike yapeou which means "blowing on the yams." ●During this ceremony, rivals/enemies from other villages come to symbolically "breathe life" into the planting material being displayed. (Similar to boxers tapping gloves before a fight- a sign of respect and mutual understanding of what needs to be done.) ●This ceremony usually takes place in August or September. ●A few months after the ceremony- men begin to clear & burn special yam gardens to prepare for planting. This is when the Abelam's taboos surrounding yam growing begin which lasts 6 months The Yam Cycle begins with a formal ceremony usually in August/September (waapike yapeou) aka "blowing on the yams", rivals come together to "breathe life" ●A month or two after, men clear and burn yam gardens to prepare for planting and taboos begin. Social conflict is avoided at all cost and people must remain calm no matter the circumstance ●At the end of dry season the gardens are cleared and yams are planted at the beginning of the wet season. Yams are then harvested according to inclination and taboos relax ●Yam festivals begin around March During the yam growing season: Social conflict is to be avoided at all costs- people must put aside any differences they may have with one another. (NO FIGHTING)Sex and other sexual acts are also banned thoughout the yam's growing season. ●At the end of the dry season- gardens are cleared & yams are planted at the beginning of the wet season. ●Towards the end of the wet season, when yam growth is completed, yams are then harvested. ●Once harvested, taboos and restrictions are slowly lifted and the atmosphere becomes more relaxed. Villagers are less worried about the possibility of yams being negatively affected.
What do taboos, rituals, and fetishes have to do with religion or magic? How does the reading Baseball Magic explain these three?
Magic rituals, taboos, and scared objects are used constantly in American sports. George Gmelch found that they reflect the kinds of beliefs and activities of that are prevalent in all sports. Baseball players use charms such as special clothes or jewelry. Players believed good magic is contagious. Pitchers touch the bill of their hat, good-luck charms, never touch foul line between home plate and first base when moving between the pitcher's mound and the dugout.
How might the theory of cultural materialism explain religious practices?
Materialistic view, objects matter, religious practices concentrate power on other than a king. Theoretical research method for examining the relationship between the physical and economic aspects of production. Material conditions including technology and enviornment determine patterns of social organizations.
What characteristics do religions have in common?
Most religions combine elements: Belief in powers or deities whose abilities transcend those of the natural world and cannot be measured by scientific tools. Myths and stories that reflect on the meaning and purpose of life, its orgins, and humans' place in the universe. Ritual activities that reinforce, recall, instill, and explore collective beliefs. Powerful symbols, often used in religious rituals that represent key aspects of the religion for its followers. Speacialists who assist the average believer to bridge everyday life experience and religions ideals and supernatural aspects. Organization and istitutions that preserve, explore, teach, and implement the religions key beliefs. A community of believers
Is sickness objective or subjective?
Subjective
What is the difference between the sacred and the profane?
The Sacred: Anything that is considered holy The Profane: Anything that is considered unholy
Who are the Abelam?
There a subgroup of the Abelam ➢ The Samukundi are located in the Prince Alexander Mountains a rugged mountain range near the north cost of the island of New Guinea. They prefer to live in in dense tropical rainforest. The Abelam people are located in the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea ○ It describe as a grassy plans ○ North of the middle Sepik River. Farming is a main role used for them to get their food source. Yams being their pride possession and a huge part of their culture. - Their main food stuff are yams taro bananas and sweet potatoes - The Abelam also depend on sago palms and large varieties of fruits and vegetables as their food source. The Abelam spend three hours a day gardening ● They spend about one hour hunting ● Do not believe in eight hour work day ● work -life balance is valued Even though the Abelam sleep a lot, they still have time to garden and hunt ● They are well fed and well nourished ● They leave most time for religious and ceremonial life
Who are amchis?
They pracitce Tibetan medicine in Zanskar. Amchis makes diagnoses by talking to the patient, observing bodily wastes, and taking the patients pulse. Exists alongside western medicine and patients who need surgery are transported to an urban area to recieve treatment. Treatments include diet and behavioral changes, as well as natural medicines.
What are rites of passage? Would getting a driver's license or receiving your Holy Communion be examples of a rite of passage?
They're a category of ritual that enacts a change of status from one life stage to another, either for an individual or for a group. Examples: birth, coming of age, marriage, and death.
