The ethnomedical approach includes how an illness like obesity is identified, understood and treated within cultural context. Medical anthropologist look at many things when using this approach. For instance, they observe the different health seeking behaviors and how individuals decide when they are sick, as well as the efficacy of healing systems. For many cultures there is one primary medical system, like in the US –biomedicine. However, there are other options like massage therapy, chiropractic, acupuncture, psychiatry, and herbology. These are all systems that compete with one another as well with many more.
From the professional sector of Kleinman’s explanatory model, professionals which include nurses, doctors, physical therapists etc, use BMI to calculate whether someone is overweight or obese. This chart is the type of chart any person can go by to check their BMI and see if they are on the right track. One of the other sectors of the model is the popular sector. This sector is when the illness is first recognized. In cases with obesity there may be patients who took this route and asked for advice from their friends and family and tried treating their obesity by self-help groups. These groups may have been activities like Curves, Crossfit, or Weight Watchers. All of these different groups help motivate and inspire everyone within the group to shed weight and become a healthier person. Lastly, there is the folk sector. Folk sectors are more prominent in larger non industrialized societies. Shamans, midwives, and herbalist are normally included in this sector as healers. The healers normally have the same ideologies and beliefs when it comes to the treatment and nature of the illness, making them more trusting to the patient. Most often the healers are known to be sacred and take more of a holistic approach. Depending on which sector you associate with and what route you choose to take, whether that be simply professional, or a mixture of all three sectors, depends on your culture and background that you come from. Culture relating to medical anthropology is defined as the shared beliefs, value, customs, and
Wilson, Jim. 2009. Mercy Medical Center, Merced, California.
shared patterns of thought and behavior that are shared by a social group.
The ethnomedical approach is important when looking at treatment options and diagnosis for many reasons. Most importantly, anthropologist are focused on observing if there are other influences in a patient’s life that are contributing to their illness. Biomedical staff are not always looking for those outside sources. For example, from the Lock and Scheper-Hughes reading there was mentioning of a medical student who listened to a patient who explained her life background that included being beaten by her husband, taking care of her sick mother-in-law, and many other things. The patient was complaining of major headaches and the medical student asked but what is the real cause of the headaches? Whereas, a medical anthropologist would consider all of those influences going on in her life that could be effecting and be the cause of her migraines.
"Resources." BMI Calculator. 2015. Accessed July 2, 2015.
Tazin, Karim. "Lecture 3.1 Ethnomedical Systems". June 2015. Accessed June 25, 2015.
Wilson, Jim. 2009. Mercy Medical Center, Merced, California. References:
From the professional sector of Kleinman’s explanatory model, professionals which include nurses, doctors, physical therapists etc, use BMI to calculate whether someone is overweight or obese. This chart is the type of chart any person can go by to check their BMI and see if they are on the right track. One of the other sectors of the model is the popular sector. This sector is when the illness is first recognized. In cases with obesity there may be patients who took this route and asked for advice from their friends and family and tried treating their obesity by self-help groups. These groups may have been activities like Curves, Crossfit, or Weight Watchers. All of these different groups help motivate and inspire everyone within the group to shed weight and become a healthier person. Lastly, there is the folk sector. Folk sectors are more prominent in larger non industrialized societies. Shamans, midwives, and herbalist are normally included in this sector as healers. The healers normally have the same ideologies and beliefs when it comes to the treatment and nature of the illness, making them more trusting to the patient. Most often the healers are known to be sacred and take more of a holistic approach. Depending on which sector you associate with and what route you choose to take, whether that be simply professional, or a mixture of all three sectors, depends on your culture and background that you come from. Culture relating to medical anthropology is defined as the shared beliefs, value, customs, and
Wilson, Jim. 2009. Mercy Medical Center, Merced, California.
shared patterns of thought and behavior that are shared by a social group.
The ethnomedical approach is important when looking at treatment options and diagnosis for many reasons. Most importantly, anthropologist are focused on observing if there are other influences in a patient’s life that are contributing to their illness. Biomedical staff are not always looking for those outside sources. For example, from the Lock and Scheper-Hughes reading there was mentioning of a medical student who listened to a patient who explained her life background that included being beaten by her husband, taking care of her sick mother-in-law, and many other things. The patient was complaining of major headaches and the medical student asked but what is the real cause of the headaches? Whereas, a medical anthropologist would consider all of those influences going on in her life that could be effecting and be the cause of her migraines.
"Resources." BMI Calculator. 2015. Accessed July 2, 2015.
Tazin, Karim. "Lecture 3.1 Ethnomedical Systems". June 2015. Accessed June 25, 2015.
Wilson, Jim. 2009. Mercy Medical Center, Merced, California. References: