After reading Paul Clark’s post on the malaria business, I was inspired to complement this with an anthropological view of the international inequalities of illness.
Medical anthropology has always provided valuable cross-cultural insights on health and illness, and recently this field has been expanding rapidly. So much so, that Palomar College has released one of its introductory level tutorials on the subject.
The inequality of disease and access to medical facilities is highlighted by WHO statistics that rank diarrhoeal diseases as the 5th deadliest disease in the world, tuberculosis is number 7.
Perhaps the most well known medical anthropologist who focuses on issues of inequality is Paul Farmer. Farmer is an advocate of health, human rights and social justice. He has written prolifically on the topic, and is also the founding director of Partners in Health.
Understanding such inequalities is core to the IB mission of creating a “better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.” Understanding international health is related to all of the key themes outlined in the IB subject guide for Social and Cultural Anthropology. A few exam-style questions that provide focus for study are:
- Discuss how anthropology has contributed to a knowledge of one of the following: development, globalization, health and illness
- Analyze the relationship between two of the following: economic organization, religion, health and illness
- Discuss the relationships between changing social and cultural processes and one of the following: the body, kinship, and tourism
The list of ethnographic resources that help develop understanding of this topic seem to increase daily. Here are a few suggestions of studies that could be used with introductory level students:
- AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the geography of blame (Farmer, 2006). An award-winning exploration of the many perspectives of health in one village, the connection of this village to the history and nation of Haiti, and the contentious relationship between Haiti and the US.
- Partner to the Poor: A Paul Farmer Reader (Farmer, Saussy & Kidder, 2010) – Ethnographic essays by Paul Farmer.
- Being Alive and Well: health and politics of Cree well-being (Adelson, 2004). Adelson explores the meanings of health to the Cree as they relate to historical and political context, social and cultural realties.
- Curing and Healing: Medical Anthropology in Global Perspective (Strathern & Stewart, 2010). Anthology of ethnographic essays.
- Elusive fragments: making power, propriety & health in Samoa (Drozdow-St.Christian, 2002). Focuses on “everyday practices of village and family life as the primary sites through which the body acts as an agent of cultural production.”
- Global Pharmaceuticals: Ethics, markets, practices (Petryna, Laktoff & Kleinman, 2006). Explores links between pharmaceuticals, inequalities and social relations.
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