ETHNOMEDICAL APPROACH
This approach looks at how traditional healing systems are constructed within different cultures. Specifically, the ethnomedical approach would include ethnographic descriptions of healing practices, explanatory models of health and sickness, linguistic taxonomies of illness categories, health-seeking behaviors, the efficacy of healing systems, and the comparisons of and interactions between ethnomedical symptoms (Karim, Lecture 3.1). This approach is extremely necessary because the way illnesses are defined can and does change depending on how the culture has contextualized it. Additionally, there are illnesses that are present in some cultures and non-existent in other cultures. For instance, there is susto, where the individual fears soul loss, which is only present in Latin American or Hispanic communities. Another example would be that of premenstrual syndrome, or PMS, which is primarily a Western illness (Karim, Lecture 3.2).
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This brings up the question of culture – what exactly is it? The way I view and define culture is via the shared knowledge, traditions, beliefs, values, ideas, etc. among a community. Culture is in constant state of flux; it will never be static. Understanding the cultural contexts of illnesses is incredibly beneficial and necessary. Using the ethnomedical approach would provide some framework in which to understand these illnesses that a Western biomedical framework would not be able to.
The video in the top right corner shows how bipolar disorder is understood and treated in Mayan culture. To give you further insight into what this video includes, here is a short description: "Peace Mother speaks on Grace, the divine feminine that unifies our realities. She gives Wisdom Teachings on the masculine and feminine energies that exist within us and how to balance those energies. She reveals that bipolar disorder is a result of being possessed by an anger demon. Peace Mother also reveals how to spark the light within us to take back our power as beings of light" (Impeccable Warrior of Light).
The video in the top right corner shows how bipolar disorder is understood and treated in Mayan culture. To give you further insight into what this video includes, here is a short description: "Peace Mother speaks on Grace, the divine feminine that unifies our realities. She gives Wisdom Teachings on the masculine and feminine energies that exist within us and how to balance those energies. She reveals that bipolar disorder is a result of being possessed by an anger demon. Peace Mother also reveals how to spark the light within us to take back our power as beings of light" (Impeccable Warrior of Light).
THE EXPLANATORY MODELS OF HEALTH
Arthur Kleinman, a medical anthropologist and a psychiatrist, came up with a framework to understand how patients understand their conditions and how they seek further treatment within cultural context(s). This framework includes three sectors: popular, folk, and professional. The popular sector focuses on commonly held beliefs about the illnesses, which is generally just trickled down and filtered professional knowledge that has been influenced by personal experience. This sector is where input from family and friends comes in. The folk sector refers to alternative forms of treatment outside of biomedicine. This sector is generally holistic and addresses issues beyond the physical symptoms of the illness. It is more prevalent in non-industrialized societies. The professional sector is the actualization of biomedicine; it is where the professionals and para-professionals come into play. In this sector, the doctors are the gatekeepers of medical knowledge and treatment (Karim, Lecture 3.1).
Viewing bipolar disorder under the popular sector would involve how the individual's family and friends frame it. Their perceptions and beliefs regarding bipolar disorder would influence the individual's own belief and subsequently their feelings on seeking treatment or not. The folk sector would involve seeking treatment outside of biomedicine. The video above that discusses how the Mayan healing system views and treats bipolar disorder would be an example of something in the folk sector. The professional sector would involve seeking treatment for bipolar disorder within biomedicine – with the assistance of professionals and paraprofessionals. It is important to note that although these sectors can exist independently of one another, it is quite likely that there will be some interaction between all of them.
Viewing bipolar disorder under the popular sector would involve how the individual's family and friends frame it. Their perceptions and beliefs regarding bipolar disorder would influence the individual's own belief and subsequently their feelings on seeking treatment or not. The folk sector would involve seeking treatment outside of biomedicine. The video above that discusses how the Mayan healing system views and treats bipolar disorder would be an example of something in the folk sector. The professional sector would involve seeking treatment for bipolar disorder within biomedicine – with the assistance of professionals and paraprofessionals. It is important to note that although these sectors can exist independently of one another, it is quite likely that there will be some interaction between all of them.
THE THREE BODIES
The three bodies are a concept created and discussed by Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Margaret M. Lock in their paper "The Mindful Body: A Prolegomenon to Future Work in Medical Anthropology." In this paper, they establish that there are three bodies: the individual body, the social body, and the body politic. The individual body is where we try to understand how different parts of the body relate to one another and what the significance of these body parts even are. It is also where Cartesian dualism comes in; where we realize that there is a self outside of these bodies. The social body is how we see the body within nature, society, and culture. It is in this body that we construct analogies such as the body as a machine or the body as a temple. The body politic is the "regulation, surveillance, and control of individual bodies and entire population" (Karim, Lecture 3.2). Within the body politic, we come to understand our body and how it can be controlled. An example of the body politic would be China's one child policy.
Under the individual body, bipolar disorder would be understood as a problem of the mind. In Western culture, there is emphasis placed on the mind/body distinction. Because the mind is not necessarily something that is tangible or physical, it creates this idea that problems that affect the mind are not real as the mind is not physically real. Following this rhetoric, this distinction further propagates the stigmatization and the de-legitimization of mental illnesses like bipolar disorder. This kind of distinction is not prevalent in many cultures and, as a result of that, the way bipolar disorder is treated differs. The social body realizes bipolar disorder as a problem. If we are following the pervasive ideology in our culture that emphasizes the body as a machine, bipolar disorder, then, would be a hindrance to that machine. Going into the body politic, because of capitalism, our worth, our existences have been tied to our productivity. Our bodies are the manifestation of that ideology – if our health suffers, our worth suffers. To exert social control, those with bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses were once separated from society. The existence of those with mental illnesses was a threat to social order as they potentially highlighted the inadequacies of our society.
To conclude this section, I wanted to share this quote from Scheper-Hughes and Lock's paper where they explain the importance of these three bodies:
To conclude this section, I wanted to share this quote from Scheper-Hughes and Lock's paper where they explain the importance of these three bodies:
What we have tried to show in these pages is the interaction among the mind/body and the individual, social, and body politic in the production and expression of health and illness. Sickness is not just an isolated event, nor an unfortunate brush with nature. It is a form of communication –the language of organs – through which nature, society, and culture speak simultaneously. The individual body should be seen as the most immediate, the proximate terrain where social truths and social contradictions are played out, as well as a locus of personal and social resistance, creativity, and struggle. |
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REFERENCE(S)
Impeccable Warrior of Light. "Healing Bipolar Syndrome and The Anger Demon with Mayan Shamanic Healing." YouTube. Impeccable Warrior of Light, 15 July 2012. Web. July 2014.
Karim, Tazin. "Lecture 3.1 Ethnomedical Systems." ANP 204. Lecture Notes. July 2014.
Karim, Tazin. "Lecture 3.2 Culture, Illness, and the Body." ANP 204. Lecture Notes. July 2014.
Scheper-Hughes, Nancy and Margaret Lock. "The Mindful Body: A Prolegomenon to Future Work in Medical Anthropology." Medical Anthropology Quarterly 1.1 (1987): 6-41. JSTOR. Web. July 2014.
Impeccable Warrior of Light. "Healing Bipolar Syndrome and The Anger Demon with Mayan Shamanic Healing." YouTube. Impeccable Warrior of Light, 15 July 2012. Web. July 2014.
Karim, Tazin. "Lecture 3.1 Ethnomedical Systems." ANP 204. Lecture Notes. July 2014.
Karim, Tazin. "Lecture 3.2 Culture, Illness, and the Body." ANP 204. Lecture Notes. July 2014.
Scheper-Hughes, Nancy and Margaret Lock. "The Mindful Body: A Prolegomenon to Future Work in Medical Anthropology." Medical Anthropology Quarterly 1.1 (1987): 6-41. JSTOR. Web. July 2014.