Medical Anthropology and Epidemiology

Abstract

▪ Abstract Over the past decade anthropologists and epidemiologists have begun to move beyond the “benign neglect” that characterized their prior relationship. Some of the most important collaborations between these disciplines concern themes of culture change and stress, social stratification, and the unpacking of other social and cultural variables. Anthropologists have criticized and expanded epidemiological notions of risk and vulnerability. Multidisciplinary teams of anthropologists and epidemiologists have constructed new measures and used multiple methods to increase the validity of their results. Disputes about classification have also linked the two disciplines. Collaborative projects between anthropologists and epidemiologists are leading to more nuanced and accurate descriptions of human behavior and more appropriate and effective interventions. Epidemiological techniques and ideas are also being used for anthropological ends, because disease often spreads along the framework of social structure. These many forms of collaboration create the foundations of a cultural epidemiology.

Hvordan kan ulike vitenskapsteoretiske perspektiver påvirke jordmorfagets utvikling og den omsorgen som gis til fødende kvinner?

“…Det mangler i dag forståelse for kompleksiteten bak menneskelig handling. Sykdommer og risikogrupper blir konstruert uten å rette oppmerksomheten på betydningen som for eksempel kultur har i denne prosessen (24). Når studier blir utført innenfor en empiristisk/positivistisk referanseramme er det en forestilling om at en nøy-tral kartlegging av en objektiv virkelighet er mulig-ubevisst eller bevisst fra forskerens side.…”

Epidemiologists working together with anthropologists: lessons from a study to evaluate the epidemiological impact of a city-wide sanitation program

“…A body of literature 5,6,7,8,9,10 has indicated contributions and limits of this integration in theoretical and methodological development. In fact, interdisciplinary collaboration, which was more apparent than real in the past, started to become more effective in the twentieth century, especially during the 1980s 11 .…”

The View from the Hogan: Cultural Epidemiology and the Return to Ethnography

“…This approach has characterized much of the relationship between the fields of anthropology and epidemiology, and has generated some fruitful, if uneven, results as well as interesting theoretical and methodological debates (e.g. Janes, Stall, & Gifford, 1986;Hahn, 1995;Trostle & Sommerfeld, 1996;Canino, Lewis-Fernandez, & Bravo, 1997). According to Trostle and Sommerfeld (1996), cultural epidemiology 'should be preoccupied with cross-cultural analyses of the distribution and determinants of disease and illness and with unpacking variables (e.g., race, class, religion, time) to illustrate and specify their theoretical context and meaning' (p. 266).…”