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5 August 2003. AN203-057 we will begin at 6.00pm … . Agenda. Mapping project presentations Review/discuss Quinlan text Review/discuss P & B text. My role in review…. We discussed Murphy and Shostak last class… please get info from classmates
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5 August 2003 AN203-057 we will begin at 6.00pm …
Agenda • Mapping project presentations • Review/discuss Quinlan text • Review/discuss P & B text
My role in review… • We discussed Murphy and Shostak last class… please get info from classmates • Our discussion last class gives a good indication of the sort of analysis you will be doing on the final exam • I can introduce some larger points from Quinlan… but you will need to fill in the details
Marsha B. Quinlan, From the Bush: The Front Line of Health Care in a Caribbean Village. Toronto, Ontario: Wadsworth/Thompson, 2004. • Medical anthropology • “Folk medicine” in Dominica • Bwa Mawego • Rural, remote village in Dominica
Folk medicine • “Folk” simply means “people” • “Folk medicine,” then, refers to any of the various remedies, behaviors, substances used in the course of home-treatment of an ailment: • Band-aids (cut, scrape) • Aloe gel (sunburn) • Advil (headaches, cramps) • Hot tea/lemon/honey (sore throat) • Cool bath (fever) • Hot shower (congestion) • Chicken soup (cold or flu)
Folk medicine • An important topic because most illnesses are treated via folk medicine rather than via a specialized medical practitioner (doctor, shaman, healer…) • 70-90% of all medical treatment in US and Taiwan occurs at home • Mothers in the Saraguro of Ecuador treat 86% of family illness complaints
Methodology and epistemology for studying folk medicine . . . • Does not involve interviewing professionals or experts (methodology) • Does involve observing day-to-day lives of non-specialist individuals within a given community (methodology) • Why? Because the information/knowledge about folk medicine lies with the “folk” (epistemology) • The “experts,” therefore, in folk medicine are, by definition, non-medical personnel (epistemology)
Methodology… • Quinlan looks at population-wide data in order to locate larger patterns of behavior • Different from the “key informant” strategy employed by some ethnographers • Collected data during 4 field trips over a 6-year period (1993-1999)
Method & focus • Quinlan is interested in three main ideas: • Ethnomedicine • Medical enculturation • Ethnopharmacology • Advocates a holistic view of the beliefs, practices, and substances of medicine (i.e., medicine is a culture of its own, and varies from culture to culture)
ethnomedicine • A culture’s body of beliefs about sickness • Includes ideas about what we need to do to stay healthy, how we catch certain illnesses, and what we must do to get better • Also includes knowledge of when and why (and from whom…) to seek medical help when we are sick
(ethno)medical enculturation • How this body of beliefs is transferred between individuals • Examples…
ethnopharmacology • Ethnomedicine referred to the beliefs concerning sickness and health • Ethnopharmacology refers to the medication itself (which can take a variety of forms) • Drugs… • Plants… • Foods…
Method & focus • Quinlan is interested in three main ideas: • Ethnomedicine • Medical enculturation • Ethnopharmacology • Advocates a holistic view of the beliefs, practices, and substances of medicine (i.e., medicine is a culture of its own, and varies from culture to culture)
Holistic view ??! • Based on the premise that treatment of any sort (specialist or non-specialist) always involves the beliefs, practices, and substances which comprise the particular culture’s perspective on health • Quinlan (and others) use a three-fold method to ensure that anthropological analyses are holistic:
Holistic view • Identify the health problem and how it is conceivably healed according to the locals (emic view) • Objectively assess the remedy’s ability to produce the desired effect (etic view) • Identify the areas of convergence and divergence between the emic and etic
Quinlan • http://www.bsudailynews.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/07/07/3f09c5525772a
P & B Thematic Review Fieldwork - Communication • Food • Agriculture • Race • Economy & Business • Gender and Socialization • Marriage and Gender Relations • Politics, Law, & Warfare • Religion, Ritual, & Curing • Cultural Change & Globalization
For each article: • Main point (thesis) in one sentence. • Two most interesting ideas from the article. • Two most important terms from the article. • Two anthropological concepts that the article illustrates/addresses (e.g., methodology, emic view, ethnicity…) • One larger theme under which the article could be categorized (e.g., marriage, gender relations, health, etc…).
…this just in… Tonight we have to fill out course evaluation forms! I cannot be here when you fill them out… so I will leave them here in an envelope and return at 8.30pm… Someone needs to volunteer to collect them and take them downstairs to the Continuing Ed. Office.