Medical anthropologists refer to a suffering persons own understanding of his or her distress as

  1. Some medical anthropologists refer to the combined effects on a population of more than one disease where these effects are intensified through the action of one or more of a variety of stressful environmental factors as

      a. suffering
      b. a syndemic.
      c. maladaptation
      d. trauma
      e. None of the above.
  2. Taken together, the health-related beliefs, knowledge, and practices of a cultural group are

      a. a biocultural adaptation.
      b. cosmopolitan medicine.
      c. an ethnomedical system.
      d. a biomedical model.
      e. its subjectivity.
  3. Most Western-trained physicians would adhere to which form of medical knowledge and practice?

      a. biomedicine
      b. medical pluralism
      c. ethnomedicine
      d. health activism
      e. medical anthropology
  4. Sicknesses that are believed unique to particular cultural groups

      a. have been called culture-bound syndromes.
      b. are the cause of endemic disease.
      c. are found exclusively in traditional societies.
      d. may be equated with illness in most situations.
      e. All of the above.
  5. Medical anthropology is a biocultural field because

      a. medical anthropologists are trained in both biomedicine and ethnomedicine.
      b. it places human sickness and health in cultural and evolutionary contexts.
      c. medical anthropologists maintain that culture mediates processes of human adaptation to their environments.
      d. Both a and b.
      e. Both b and c.
  6. Western biomedicine is understood to likely reject sorcery as a cause of illness because

      a. Christians believe that one cannot become sick due to magic or evil spirits.
      b. its practitioners only recognize material causes of human disease.
      c. its practitioners hold that human organisms are autonomous, self-contained entities.
      d. Both b and c.
      e. None of the above.
  7. From reading the chapter on medical anthropology, we can see that this area of focus reflects the general anthropological understanding that we must consider a broad range of factors when trying to explain the health challenges of different groups. We could describe researchers with this understanding as having

      a. an ethnomedical view.
      b. a biomedical paradigm.
      c. a biocultural synthesis.
      d. an epidemographic perspective.
      e. All of the above.
  8. We could expect that a medical anthropologist who follows a primarily interpretive approach in their research would tend to focus on

      a. how human maladaptations can produce disease or sickness.
      b. how a person afflicted with AIDS, for example, would make sense of their own suffering in ways that reflect their particular cultural beliefs and practices.
      c. the physical impairments associated with disease.
      d. explaining, for example, how a lactose absorption genetic variant might confer a fitness advantage on certain individuals.
      e. None of the above.
  9. The term “biosociality” is used by medical anthropologists

      a. to refer to an neoliberal identity.
      b. to capture the inequality experienced by suffering bodies.
      c. to refer to social identities that are based on a shared medical diagnosis.
      d. as a way of referencing the fundamental subjectivity of being human.
      e. referring to how medical beliefs and practices can be understood as sociocultural systems.
  10. Those anthropologists who emphasize how particular social and political structures distribute human suffering systematically and unevenly within a given society can be said to

      a. draw attention to the ways in which socioeconomic inequality correlates with many forms of physical, mental, and emotional suffering.
      b. take the perspective of critical medical anthropology.
      c. hold that economic forces differentially structure risk for various forms of suffering within a society.
      d. avoid blaming the victims of suffering for their own distress.
      e. All of the above.

What is Anthropology of illness?

Medical anthropology is the study of how health and illness are shaped, experienced, and understood in light of global, historical, and political forces.

How does the anthropological understanding of sickness differ from illness or disease?

Medical anthropologists differ in their emphasis on illness and disease as culturally influenced subjective states. The individual acknowledgment of illness is incredibly variable. People without adequate health care in the United States literally “can't afford” to be sick.

Which statement best describes what medical anthropologists study group of answer choices?

Which of the following best describes medical anthropology? It studies how illness and its diagnosis and treatment are socially constructed and managed in different societies.

Which anthropological perspective is most likely to be used to study and improve health conditions in football players?

Terms in this set (10) Which anthropological perspective is most likely to be used to study and improve health conditions in football players? Medical anthropology takes a holistic approach to health.