Midterm 1 Flashcards
(78 cards)
1
Q
Universals of Medical Anthropology
A
- all human beings (individuals and groups) experience sickness and death
- all societies have medical systems to cope with sickened and religious systems to deal with death
2
Q
Goal medical anthro
A
- seeks to examine both differences and similarities between human groups in how they deal with these universal experiences
- goal understand the causes of health and illness in societies
3
Q
Bio social approaches emphasize
A
- Biology, behaviour, evolution, adaptation, and environment to describe health and illness in human populations ;
- focuses on human adaptation to the physical environment including human alteration of the environment and how this impacts upon health condition
- concerned with health
- health as human to land relations
4
Q
Cultural approaches emphasize
A
- How particular groups conceptualizer and deal with health and disease;
- Focuses on ideas, beliefs, and values “in creating systems of illness classification and medical programs for curing illness”
- concerned with medicine or ethnomedicine
5
Q
Medical anthropology
A
The study of health, disease, healing, and sickness in human groups
6
Q
Determinants of health from an anthropological perspective:
A
- Physical environment
- genetic influence
- socioeconomic circumstances
7
Q
Story of Awine
A
- infant homozygous recessive for allele causes sickle cell anemia (genes)
- sub-Saharan Africa Zebilla (arranged marriage, endogamy–> limited gene pool)
- emotional involvement, desire parents
- historically from hunter gatherer to farming –> malaria (sickle cell anemia advantage–> resistance malaria)
8
Q
Biosocial approaches
A
- focus on the intersection human populations, ecology, and evolutionary change over time
- draw methods and theories from biological anthro and archaeology
- evolution, health, and medicine
- human biological variation
- archaeology and the history of health
9
Q
Cultural approaches
A
- social & cultural variables affecting health, illness, behaviour, and medicine
- study system ideas, beliefs, and values pertaining to disease and illness
- ethnography
- ethnomedicine
- cultural and political ecologies of disease
- belief and healing
- the meaning and experience of illness
- biomedicine, technology, and the body
- culture illness and mental health
10
Q
Ethnomedicine
A
All cultures have medical systems, practices, and knowledge about the causes, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, the study of these systems is called ethnomedicine
11
Q
3 essential features of anthropology
A
- holistic and interdisciplinary
- despite diverse array of methods and theories all anthropologists use culture concept
- identify, describe, and explain cultural patterns across these structural dimensions
12
Q
Holistic
A
- focuses on both biological and social settings of human behaviours and thought
13
Q
Interdisciplinary
A
so many different specialties and four sub fields
14
Q
Four sub-fields anthropology
A
- archaeology
- physical anthropology
- linguistics
- social- cultural anthropology
15
Q
Culture
A
Learned patterns of thought and behaviour shared by a social group
16
Q
Structure
A
Cultural patterns exist over three interconnected domains: infrastructure, structure, and superstructure
17
Q
Infrastructure
A
The domain of material and economic culture (accessible resources, technology, systems of food procurement.. Necessities, ecological, means production?
18
Q
Structure
A
The domain of social organization, power, and interpersonal relations- includes institutions, roles, and statuses (modes social production)
19
Q
Superstructure
A
The domain of belief systems, symbols, cognitive models, and ideology
20
Q
Basic approaches
A
Research as a means of expanding our general knowledge
21
Q
Applied approaches
A
Research as a means of solving particular problems
22
Q
WHO definition health
A
A state of complete physical, mental, and social well- being- not merely the absence of disease and infirmity
23
Q
Sickness
A
Unwanted variations in the physical, social, and psychological dimensions of self:
Can be divided into illness and disease
24
Q
Disease
A
A physical phenomenon, evident in the patho- physiology of tissue in the organism (objective)
25
Illness
The "human experience and perceptions of alterations in health as informed by their broader social and cultural meanings (subjective)
26
Distinction of illness and disease...
Sheds light on differences between patients and healers in terms of how they communicate about disease and how they conceptualizer therapeutic care
27
Five basic approaches to medical anthropology
- Bio social (biological)
- Cultural (ecological, ethnomedical, critical)
- applied
28
Essential premises of 5 approaches:
- illness and healing are universal human experiences
- disease is a part of the natural environment influenced by cultural behaviour
- experience of disease is culturally filtered
- cultural facets of healing systems have pragmatic consequences
29
Biological approaches
- evolution
- disease and the Neolithic revolution
- diseases of civilization
- cultural critique
30
Evolution
- biology explains evolutionary relationships and processes (human genetic variation, human susceptibility and resistance to disease, environmental stressors)
- sheds light current health trends tracing roots of present day patterns of morbidity and mortality
31
Disease and the Neolithic revolution
- health consequences of shifting to sedentary living :
- exposure new diseases- domesticated animals
- viable populations for the growth of a cute infectious diseases
- more people = more waste
Social stratification and health
32
Diseases of civilization
- major causes morbidity and mortality are heart disease, diabetes, and cancer
- genotype adapted to lots exercise, seasonal food shortages, and low fat diets
- biologically not well suited to environment we live in
33
Premises of ecological approaches
- the ecosystem: human beings are part of larger series of relationships involving physical environment and other organisms
- human to environment relationships are homeostatic
- we change our environment in ways that impact disease agents, and alter rates of morbidity and mortality
34
Cultural ecology
Micro level analysis: focuses on the consequences if patterns of thought and behaviour on disease ecology and vice versa
35
Political ecology
Macro level analysis a concentrates on interactions between cultural groups and their impact on disease ecology
36
Ethnomedical approaches
- focus on knowledge and practice
| - ideal types based on disease etiology
37
Personalization systems
Disease is caused by personal forces- wo you are and how you act to others matters
38
Naturalistic systems
Disease is caused by external factors, impersonal forced
39
Uniformitarianism
- the forces that cause change in the present also called change in the past
- processes and forces consist of the interaction between biological organisms and their environment, including other biological organisms
40
Natural selection
- relative degrees of fitness ( reproduce)
- environments "select" organisms with better traits
- organisms that survive to reproduce contribute yet predominant materials in the genetic makeup of population
- over generations of differential reproduction, gene pool changes and produces what we classify as new species or types of organisms
41
Sickness and healing (the SH adaption)
- sickness and healing an elaboration of grooming and caring for con specifics observed in Non- human primates
- human medical behaviours are "relatively complex expr sayings of suffering, need, and help seeking together with corresponding actions of compassion and health giving"
42
Stone Agers in the Fast Lane (Eaton, Shostak, and Konner)
- Paleolithic genes vs. Post modern lifestyle
- late Paleolithic lifestyle
- altered lifestyle and disease prevalence
Main idea: our lifestyle does not fit with our genes
Conclusion: to cope with peeve lance diseases of civilization reintroduce paleolithich lifestyle, preventative medicine including more exercise and better dietary choices
43
Paleolithic genes vs post- modern lifestyle
- rapid cultural change has impacted on our health in both positive and negative ways
-positive: public health, biomedicine, surgery, antibiotics, increases life expectancy
Negative: poor diet and lack of exercise, increased peeve lance of chronic degenerative diseases
44
Late Paleolithic lifestyle
Nutrition- high protein, low fat, no alcohol
Physical exercise- better
Alcoholic beverages- none
Tobacco abuse
45
Altered lifestyle and disease prevalence
- obesity, diabetes, hypertension, cancer... Don't believe existed as much
46
Darwinian medicine (Randolph Nesse)
- illness emergent property of human interaction with the physical environment
- DM uses theory natural selection to understand why body is not better designed
47
Evolutionary explanations for obesity
- appetite regulation mechanisms are adapted so we survive food shortages
- we like food that isn't good for use- cravings salt sugar based on fact were scarce
- tend minimize caloric expenditure- adaptive trait long ago
48
Evolution and anxiety disorders
- an adaptive response to predatory pressure:
Fight or flight
Agoraphobia- optimal response in right environment
49
Symptoms of evolutionary defences:
Need to differentiate between physiological defects and defences
(Ie fought important function- cough medicine more harm than good?)
50
Clinical adaptations of Darwinian medicine
- understanding common illnesses (common illnesses result of natural selection, process caught maximizing reproduction not health)
- answering questions about etiology (natural selection shapes whatever level of virulence maximizes replication of bacteria and viruses)
51
Polymorphic traits
Traits that have two forms
52
Tay Sachs disease
- autosomal recessive disorder (heterozygous do not get disease)
- balanced polymorphism: maladaptive traits persist because they offer heterozygous ab advantage --> increased resistance to stab
53
Genotype
Genes set physical boundaries and potentials
54
Phenotype
The environment helps determine whether potentials are reached
55
Causes of variation
- natural selection
- drift
- migration
- shared history
56
Plasticity
The ability of many organisms to alter themselves, their behaviour or even their biology, in response to changes in the environment
- essential part existence as generalists that can adapt and live in a variety of environments
57
Classic examples of human plasticity
- digest lactose
| - range in height
58
Race
- not very useful concept from biological perspective
- human biological variation continuos
- race static and typological concept- doesn't adequately capture the complexity and mutability if human biological variation
- race social construct with profound biological consequences
59
Six points of contention: myth of race as biology:
- concept based on notion of fixed types in an unchanging natural world
- human variation is continuous
- human variation is nonconcordant- traits tend to vary independently of other traits
- within group variation is much greater than variation among so called races
- there is no way to consistently classify by race
- there is no clarity as to what race is and what it is not
60
Double error
Two leaps logic underlying the notion that racial differences in disease are due to genetic differences among races
Geneticization: most biology and behaviour located in genes
Scientific racialism: belief races are real and useful constricts
61
What is skin colour if not indicator of race?
- development hairlessness
- sun protection
- folate connection
62
Folate connection
- light skinned people too much sunlight low levels B vitamin folate (dark skin evolved protected floated stores)
- not enough sub vitamin D deficiency-- rockets
63
Bio archaeology
- approach to study human health and illness in the past
- methods drawn from biology and archaeology
- excavation to acquire evidence of health and illness
- biological (pathological) methods to look for and analyze disease
64
Neolithic revolution
Defined by economic (food production) and technological (ground stone tools) change
- food production = population growth, sustained permanent settlements
- new institutions and laws emerged along with social classes and inequality
65
Human health and Neolithic revolution
- human health suffered
- infectious diseases found populations in which they could grow and spread
- socioeconomic changes primary reason for modern declines in mortality and increases in population
66
Paleopathology
- the study of pathology in the past
| - pathology: study of the causes, processes, and structures of disease by examination of physical tissue
67
Methods in paleopathology
- choice methods depends on type material available for analysis
- soft tissue (gross observation and microscopic observation) requires different means of analysis than hard tissue (excavation)
- bulk osteological: gross observation, X-rats, and microscopic techniques (hard tissue)
68
Disease in agricultural populations in transition
- shift to sedentary life and food productions--> increase parasitic, zoo tonic, and infectious disease
69
Periosteal reactions:
Pathogens can cause nonspecific lesions
70
Porotic hyperostosis
Nutritional suffice cues CNS cause
| Lesions
71
Dickson mounds
- series of sites located in eastern woodlands in Illinois
- skeletal samples compared across time periods
- analysis reveals major deterioration in health overtime
72
Dickson mounds culture history
Late woodland- hunter gatherer
Late Woodlawn- maize agriculture
Middle mission in- agriculture
73
Signs health deterioration
- patterns infection and anemia died before age 10
- infection peaks first year life
- anemia peaks second and third years of life
- individuals survive infection problems maintaining adequate iron reserves
- delayed growth
- dental enamel hypophysia
74
Wear and tear hypothesis
Those with hypophysia represent group individuals challenged by insult early in their lifetimes and continued to be subjected to insults during the rest of their lives
75
Damaged goods hypothesis
- major insults occur at critical period of immunology development
76
Sudanese Nubia
- comparison skeletal populations from less intensive and intensive agricultural adaptations
- similar disease patterns as those found anong agricultural population at Dickson mounds
- period real reactions much lower
77
Determinants of health - Thomas mckeown
- historical argument about determinants of health in human populations
- determinants health basic huge nine and nutrition
- compares mortality rates before and after intoroduction major medical interventions
78
Engineering metaphor
- healthy body/ person is a well tuned machine
- optimum health measures by normal structure and function of the body
- studying machines response to disease enable physicians to intervene course of disease
- body can be protected from disease by primarily chemical and physical intervention
