Medical anthropology
Medical anthropology studies how culture, society, biology, and power shape health, illness, healing, and medical systems.
Anthropology: The comparative study of human societies, cultures, language, and biological variation. Medical anthropology applies anthropology’s comparative approach to health and healing.
Explanatory model: A person’s account of an illness’s cause, course, and appropriate treatment. Comparing explanatory models shows why patients and clinicians may interpret the same illness differently.
Global health: The study and practice of improving health and achieving equity across national boundaries. Medical anthropologists examine how global programs meet local histories, priorities, and institutions.
Arthur Kleinman: An American psychiatrist and anthropologist known for work on illness narratives, explanatory models, and care. His explanatory-model framework shaped how the field compares patient and clinician perspectives.
Biomedicine: A medical system grounded in biomedical science, clinical diagnosis, and interventions on the body. Medical anthropology studies biomedicine as a cultural and institutional system, not only a scientific method.
Culture: Shared meanings, practices, values, and ways of life transmitted within social groups. Cultural meanings shape how illness is recognized, explained, and treated.
Medicalization: The process by which conditions or behaviors become defined and treated as medical problems. It shows how medical categories can reshape ordinary experiences and social problems.
Reproductive health: Health and well-being related to reproductive processes, functions, and systems. Its study reveals how gender, policy, kinship, and clinical care shape bodily autonomy.
Paul Farmer: An American physician and anthropologist known for research on infectious disease and health inequality. His work connected clinical care with structural violence and global inequity.
Medical sociology: The sociological study of health, illness, medical institutions, and health care. It shares many questions with medical anthropology but typically emphasizes sociological frameworks.