Medical Anthropology
Started by Stewie
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I took a medical anthro class in college, it was interesting. I got the impression that there isn't much advantage to being an MD in that field. It isn't like in research where you need to be an MD so you can run your own field trials. It is a field that is like regular anthro, you spend a lot of time observing and interviewing. A medical background helps, and there have been some docs who have written medical anthro papers while in school or training but I don't think they were MD/PhD. Hope that helps.Stewie said:
Jbar
There is a medical anthropology professor some where on these forums. She might be able to help you since I am only a lowly anthro major. I took a medical anthropology class last semester on the health perspectives of Native American communities. The message that I got from the class is that certain illnesses are best explained from the point of view of the culture they arise in. For instance, we read a book how western practitioners defined members of a community as suffering from depression and lonliness as defined by the DSM-IV. The DSM-IV, however, fell way short of explaining why people were not well. The author of the book described the depression-like illness in this community as it relates to intra and inter community social relationships as well as historical and environmental factors. It was like an ethnography focused on illnesses that arise within a culture and the varying perspectives that accompany it. Medical anthropology takes a similar approach as socio-cultural anthro but is very focused.
I found that a lot of medical anths diss western medicine quite a bit in the articles that I read.
I've heard of students doing a MA/MD joint degree (e.g. UCSF) but have never heard of a PhD/MD degree in medical anthro...you might be able to customize a program if you talk to the dean ahead of time. Good Luck!
I found that a lot of medical anths diss western medicine quite a bit in the articles that I read.
I've heard of students doing a MA/MD joint degree (e.g. UCSF) but have never heard of a PhD/MD degree in medical anthro...you might be able to customize a program if you talk to the dean ahead of time. Good Luck!
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WUSTL has a pretty strong Anthro dept. and even has a prof with an MD/PhD in Medical Anthropology from Indiana U. WUSTL also currently has a med student who is doing an MD/PhD in Medical Anthro. It's pretty rare, but they're out there. 🙂
Stewie said:
It consists primarily of either a post-structuralist or Gramscian/Marxist interpretation of medical practices. You have to pick ONE to be successful.
Read:
"The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" by Thomas Kuhn
"The Birth of the Clinic" by Michel Foucault
"Pathologies of Power" by Paul S. Farmer
Definitely read this book if you are interested:
"Infections and Inequalities: the Modern Plagues" by Paul S. Farmer
I think I am the token med anth PhD on this forum. Funny, I never thought I would hear "Is there a medical anthropologist here?" As my husband likes to say "we are the kind of doctors that can't help anyone." he has his PhD in Archaeology.
Anyway, in answer to your question I can give you a run down on some of the things I have done to give you an idea of what Med Anths do. I do not know as much about the MD/PhD programs.
1. My dissertation research was in Milan, Italy. I studied the growing incidences of reported cases of anorexia in Northern Italy. Looked at contributing factors such as the fashion industry, changing conceptions of the ideal female body, decreased birth rates inthe country, etc.
2. I worked on a projected funded by the Florida Department of Public Health assessing the effectiveness of needle exchange programs on decreasing HIV transmission in South Beach, Miami.
3. Recently, I worked in rural areas of Colorado to assess the needs of health service providers working with HIV/AIDS infected individuals to determine whether rapid assessment testing kits were needed.
4. I have served on several women's health forums to determine the health care needs for women on college campuses.
I have med anth friends who work for the WHO, NIH and various public health departments. Then there are those, like myself, who are in academia and "practice" anthropology when called to do so.
I agree that the Farmer books are good starts, but as for Foucault, I would start with "Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison"--it lays out his entire anthologies M.O. and makes "Birth" and "Madness and Civilization" so much more palatable.
Hope that helps. Let me know if you need more information.
Anyway, in answer to your question I can give you a run down on some of the things I have done to give you an idea of what Med Anths do. I do not know as much about the MD/PhD programs.
1. My dissertation research was in Milan, Italy. I studied the growing incidences of reported cases of anorexia in Northern Italy. Looked at contributing factors such as the fashion industry, changing conceptions of the ideal female body, decreased birth rates inthe country, etc.
2. I worked on a projected funded by the Florida Department of Public Health assessing the effectiveness of needle exchange programs on decreasing HIV transmission in South Beach, Miami.
3. Recently, I worked in rural areas of Colorado to assess the needs of health service providers working with HIV/AIDS infected individuals to determine whether rapid assessment testing kits were needed.
4. I have served on several women's health forums to determine the health care needs for women on college campuses.
I have med anth friends who work for the WHO, NIH and various public health departments. Then there are those, like myself, who are in academia and "practice" anthropology when called to do so.
I agree that the Farmer books are good starts, but as for Foucault, I would start with "Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison"--it lays out his entire anthologies M.O. and makes "Birth" and "Madness and Civilization" so much more palatable.
Hope that helps. Let me know if you need more information.
I know of several MD-PhD students in anthropology at schools such as UCSF and Yale. PM me if you want their email addresses. I am not sure if they would appreciate me posting their addresses without permission here.
