What is medical anthropology?
Medical anthropology is the understanding of a disease in a human body through religion, beliefs, rituals, or practices that have been performed throughout a cultures history. It institutes a new sense of holistic approach towards culture and biomedicine.
The human body may be an “organic system made up of replaceable parts” but it does have a soul, a character, a part of the community and their family that needs to stay intact (Joralemon 2010: 20). This is being accomplished by the emerging profession of medical anthropology, they are not trying to deviate them from their social norm but to form an understanding of what they know and how they view things so they can treat thoroughly (Joralemon 2010: 8).
The uniqueness of medical anthropologists is their approach to research not being the traditional structured hypothesis testing research paradigm of lab sciences. Medical anthropologists use participation observation. This believes that humans can study other humans by observing ordinary social life and the critical skills used unselfconsciously (Joralemon 2010: 17). Methodological participant observation is a qualitative method to observe nonverbal expressions of feelings, interactions, communication styles, and time framed allotted for certain types of activities (Forum Qualitative Social Research). This method uses interviewing, observing, and participation to gain information.
Medical anthropology is the understanding of a disease in a human body through religion, beliefs, rituals, or practices that have been performed throughout a cultures history. It institutes a new sense of holistic approach towards culture and biomedicine.
The human body may be an “organic system made up of replaceable parts” but it does have a soul, a character, a part of the community and their family that needs to stay intact (Joralemon 2010: 20). This is being accomplished by the emerging profession of medical anthropology, they are not trying to deviate them from their social norm but to form an understanding of what they know and how they view things so they can treat thoroughly (Joralemon 2010: 8).
The uniqueness of medical anthropologists is their approach to research not being the traditional structured hypothesis testing research paradigm of lab sciences. Medical anthropologists use participation observation. This believes that humans can study other humans by observing ordinary social life and the critical skills used unselfconsciously (Joralemon 2010: 17). Methodological participant observation is a qualitative method to observe nonverbal expressions of feelings, interactions, communication styles, and time framed allotted for certain types of activities (Forum Qualitative Social Research). This method uses interviewing, observing, and participation to gain information.