Teaching
Cultural Anthropology
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Unit 5
Medical Anthropology
Medical anthropology considers culture’s presence and role in medicine and ways of thinking about the body, well-being, illness, and healing. Medical anthropological approaches center biology and the sociocultural mechanisms that help different groups make sense of illness, health, bodily functions, and well-being. Students will learn how medical anthropology can help make sense of cultural perspectives of medical issues, and why the field is so well-positioned to bring about meaningful improvements in health care systems and communities.
Sapiens articles
How Natural Birth Became Inaccessible to the Poor
While Mexico’s middle and upper classes are discovering the wonders of natural birth, traditional Indigenous midwives are actively being discouraged from providing the same services to the lower classes.
Can Medical Anthropology Solve the Diabetes Dilemma?
As the number of sufferers continues to rise, some researchers are moving in new directions to figure out how culture and lifestyle shape disease outcomes.
Keywords
View All in Health
![Holding a small glass bowl containing a translucent, gelatinous substance, a pair of hands uses tweezers to gently lift the substance out of the bowl.]()
![A black-and-white photograph shows three Black women standing in front of a bookshelf. One woman, pregnant, leans her back against another, who reaches around to cradle her baby bump. The third reaches out to touch her belly.]()
![Under a clear blue sky, seven women, several of them topless to reveal their post-mastectomy aesthetic flat closures, stand on an orange-colored suspension bridge holding aloft colorful circles of coral, pink, and green pastel hues. They are clad in loose-fitting colorful clothing with bold patterned prints.]()
![Two people swim in an outdoor pool of shimmering blue water beneath a crisp blue sky. In the background is a row of short structures with outdoor seating and enclosed rooms.]()
![A woman pushing a stroller on the sidewalk walks briskly past a large billboard advertising a model who sports a fashionable handbag.]()
![Green, purple, red, yellow, and white flowers arranged in the shape of a uterus lie on a sunlit sidewalk.]()
How Bird’s Nests Become Markers of Vitality and Status
An anthropologist explores how nests made from the saliva of swiftlets—long valued within some Asian medicinal and culinary traditions—have reached a growing global market.
Black, Pregnant, and Always Vigilant
A former National Health Service doctor and multidisciplinary scholar explores how Black women in the U.K. manage reproductive risks and anxieties.
When Women Say “Ta-Ta” to Ta-Tas
An anthropologist fighting cancer navigates the social pressure to get breast reconstruction after a mastectomy.
Cold-Water Swimming Brings New Life to Aging Bodies
A researcher dips into life at a community pool in Cambridge, England, to find out why so many people over 60 are finding joy and pleasure in a cold-water swim.
To Raise Children, We Must First Raise Parents
An anthropologist compares her early motherhood in London with child care experiences in a hunter-gatherer community of Central Africa.
My Errant Uterus
In a time of heightened threats to reproductive rights, a women’s health scholar and mother of two comes face to face with her uterus.
View All in Medicine
![Holding a small glass bowl containing a translucent, gelatinous substance, a pair of hands uses tweezers to gently lift the substance out of the bowl.]()
![A black-and-white photograph shows three Black women standing in front of a bookshelf. One woman, pregnant, leans her back against another, who reaches around to cradle her baby bump. The third reaches out to touch her belly.]()
![Under a clear blue sky, seven women, several of them topless to reveal their post-mastectomy aesthetic flat closures, stand on an orange-colored suspension bridge holding aloft colorful circles of coral, pink, and green pastel hues. They are clad in loose-fitting colorful clothing with bold patterned prints.]()
![Green, purple, red, yellow, and white flowers arranged in the shape of a uterus lie on a sunlit sidewalk.]()
![A gray-haired woman sits on an exam table in a light-filled doctor’s office and looks out a window.]()
![Three people stand on a grassy field holding signs with pictures of young people’s faces pasted on them. Also on the signs, in colorful text, are two phrases: “Invest in Us” and “End the War on Drugs” with the word “Drugs” crossed out and the word “Blacks” added before it.]()
How Bird’s Nests Become Markers of Vitality and Status
An anthropologist explores how nests made from the saliva of swiftlets—long valued within some Asian medicinal and culinary traditions—have reached a growing global market.
Black, Pregnant, and Always Vigilant
A former National Health Service doctor and multidisciplinary scholar explores how Black women in the U.K. manage reproductive risks and anxieties.
When Women Say “Ta-Ta” to Ta-Tas
An anthropologist fighting cancer navigates the social pressure to get breast reconstruction after a mastectomy.
My Errant Uterus
In a time of heightened threats to reproductive rights, a women’s health scholar and mother of two comes face to face with her uterus.
Doctors Are Taught to Lie About Race
Decades ago, anthropologists dispelled the myth of biological race. Lagging behind in scientific understandings of human diversity, the medical profession is failing its oath to “do no harm.”
How Racism Shapes the U.S. Opioid Epidemic
Public health officials say opioid use and related deaths have reached a crisis point in the U.S. An interview with anthropologist and psychiatrist Helena Hansen unpacks the racial disparities in how drug addiction is interpreted, portrayed, and treated.
Professor Talking Points
- Medical anthropology considers sociocultural factors in health, behaviors around health, and medical systems.
- Medical anthropology is cognizant of the structures that allow or constrain access to health care and determine how it will be distributed.
- This field investigates how people think about “functional” bodies, “less functional” or “ill” bodies, and ways to make them “well.”
- Medical anthropologists continue to make fascinating inroads into how best to address health issues within the populations they work with—precisely because of their holistic understanding of what the issues in question mean to the group.
Academic Articles
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Farmer, Paul. 2004. “An Anthropology of Structural Violence.” Current Anthropology 45 (3): 305–325.
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Scheper-Hughes, Nancy. 2000. “The Global Traffic in Human Organs.” Current Anthropology 41 (2): 191–224.
Student Discussion Questions
- Why is culture important in matters of health and medicine?
- What are examples of ethnomedicine (i.e., the health system of a group)? Have you experienced a form of ethnomedicine?
- Is medicine shaped by culture, or is culture shaped by medicine?
- What structures, such as international law and national medical organizations, do the readings point to and how do the authors complicate the issues of maternity, diabetes, organ trafficking, and others mentioned in the texts?
- What critiques do medical anthropologists make of medical systems and structural imbalances? Use specific examples from the readings.
Activities
- Have students watch media coverage of major social health concerns (e.g., the novel coronavirus pandemic, the Ebola virus epidemic, the opioid crisis) and consider how the coverage reflects cultural assumptions about illnesses, where they come from, how they are transmitted, and what might be needed to cure them.
Additional Resources
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Article: SAPIENS: The Dark Side of Skin Lightening
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Article Series: SAPIENS’ Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Coverage
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Video: Bloomberg Big Decision’s “ Paul Farmer”
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Website: Society for Medical Anthropology’s What Is Medical Anthropology?
Unit By
Eshe Lewis (2020)
Teaching
Cultural Anthropology
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Unit 6
Symbolism
