Anthropology of Healing
Running head: FINAL EXAM
Anthropology of Healing Final Exam
Each society has their own medical systems and practices for diagnosing and treating illness and disease. There is a direct relationship between healing beliefs and practices and cultures. Ethno medical inquiry is defined as “the study of how members of different cultures think about disease and organize themselves toward medical treatment and the social organization of treatment itself” (Fabrega 1975:969). Each ethno medical systems have three parts: (1) a theory if the etiology of sickness; (2) a method of diagnosis based on the etiological theory and (3) the prescription of appropriate therapies based on the diagnosis. Personalistic belief system, explains sickness as the result of supernatural forces directed at a patient, by a sorcerer or by an angry spirit. Naturalistic belief systems, explains sickness in terms of natural forces, such as germ theory (Brown P., 1998)
The healing process
The universal pattern of healing is based on cultural constructs, embodied experience, adaption through socialization and the personal self and social self. The universal pattern of healing uses both material and symbolic productions, involves both techniques and meaning, and appeals to senses, mind and social relationships. (Dr. Paul Biscop, 2007).
“Dualism is a set of views about the relationship between mind and matter, which begins with the claim that mental phenomena are, in some respects, non-physical” (Dualism (philosophy of mind) [definition].)
Cartesian dualism is based on mind, body and society. It is the continuum of an experience and the connectedness of an experience. It is based on assumptions, cultural definitions and paradigms. Humans experience life through and body and humans experience society as an embodied member. (Dr. Paul Biscop, 2007).
Humans learn to judge and this is developed through orders of reality. Orders of reality include: physical reality (sensory based),
Anthropology of Healing Final Exam
Each society has their own medical systems and practices for diagnosing and treating illness and disease. There is a direct relationship between healing beliefs and practices and cultures. Ethno medical inquiry is defined as “the study of how members of different cultures think about disease and organize themselves toward medical treatment and the social organization of treatment itself” (Fabrega 1975:969). Each ethno medical systems have three parts: (1) a theory if the etiology of sickness; (2) a method of diagnosis based on the etiological theory and (3) the prescription of appropriate therapies based on the diagnosis. Personalistic belief system, explains sickness as the result of supernatural forces directed at a patient, by a sorcerer or by an angry spirit. Naturalistic belief systems, explains sickness in terms of natural forces, such as germ theory (Brown P., 1998)
The healing process
The universal pattern of healing is based on cultural constructs, embodied experience, adaption through socialization and the personal self and social self. The universal pattern of healing uses both material and symbolic productions, involves both techniques and meaning, and appeals to senses, mind and social relationships. (Dr. Paul Biscop, 2007).
“Dualism is a set of views about the relationship between mind and matter, which begins with the claim that mental phenomena are, in some respects, non-physical” (Dualism (philosophy of mind) [definition].)
Cartesian dualism is based on mind, body and society. It is the continuum of an experience and the connectedness of an experience. It is based on assumptions, cultural definitions and paradigms. Humans experience life through and body and humans experience society as an embodied member. (Dr. Paul Biscop, 2007).
Humans learn to judge and this is developed through orders of reality. Orders of reality include: physical reality (sensory based),
References: Spiro, A. (2005). Najar or Bhut- Evil Eye or Ghost Affliction: Gujarti views about Illness Causation. Anthropology & Medicine, 12(1), 61-73. Coronado, G. (2005). Competing Health Models in Mexico: An Ideological Dialogue between Indian and Hegemonic Views. Anthropology & Medicine, 12(2), 165-177. Brown P. (1998). Medical Anthropology: An Introduction to the Fields. In Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology (pp. 10-19). Mountain View, California: Mayfield Publishing Company. Shamanism [definition]. Available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki Dualism (philosophy of mind) [definition]. Available from http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Dualism Dr. Paul Biscop. (2007, July). Anthropology of Healing. Anthropology of Healing Soc/Anth 3377 presented in lectures, student notes, Saint John, New Brunswick. .