ANTH 435 EXAM 1 STUDY GUIDE | 2026 UPDATE |
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS | WITH COMPLETE
SOLUTION
Definition of Medical Anthropology Answer - Study of the following from an
anthropological perspective:
- human health and disease
- health-related behavior
- healing and health care
What are some key issues related to the debate around using the term medical
anthropology instead of an alternative term like health anthropology? Answer
- - Can be less inclusive, leaving out allied health professions
- Suggests biomedicine is the standard
- Ties a focus on pathology
- Has to be viewed in a holistic perspective
Four factors that form the biosocial processes of disease Answer - - Human
biology
- Systems of belief
- Structures of social relationship
- Environmental conditions
, The Straits Expedition Answer - - Early anthropological research (1898)
amongst Indigenous Austrailian people
- Collected information on traditional health beliefs and practices
- Earliest research to include aspects of health
- Found internal coherent structures of cultural beliefs that were related to
healing
W.H.R Rivers Answer - - Father of medical anthropology
- published a book named Medicine, magic and religion
- His work incorporated health related issues into medical anthropology
- The study of cross-cultural perspectives in healing systems became prevalent
- recognition that non-western ethnomedicine traditions had a role of magic
and supernatural beings in the causing and curing of illness
- while biomedicine uses the natural laws and scientific principles to
understand the cause and cures of illness
Describe the relationship between the history of the discipline and the applied
vs. academic debate Answer - Argument against applied anthropology: the
quality of the research can be perceived as superficial, impressionistic, less
rigorous, non-theoretical, and those that practice it are a little more than
technicians
Argument against academic anthropology: theories that are used and
developed can sometimes seem abstract, obstructive, and sometimes
irrelevant for those that are seeking practical solutions to specific health
problems
-tensions between these two perspectives can be seen played out in the
history of the birth of the sub-discipline
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS | WITH COMPLETE
SOLUTION
Definition of Medical Anthropology Answer - Study of the following from an
anthropological perspective:
- human health and disease
- health-related behavior
- healing and health care
What are some key issues related to the debate around using the term medical
anthropology instead of an alternative term like health anthropology? Answer
- - Can be less inclusive, leaving out allied health professions
- Suggests biomedicine is the standard
- Ties a focus on pathology
- Has to be viewed in a holistic perspective
Four factors that form the biosocial processes of disease Answer - - Human
biology
- Systems of belief
- Structures of social relationship
- Environmental conditions
, The Straits Expedition Answer - - Early anthropological research (1898)
amongst Indigenous Austrailian people
- Collected information on traditional health beliefs and practices
- Earliest research to include aspects of health
- Found internal coherent structures of cultural beliefs that were related to
healing
W.H.R Rivers Answer - - Father of medical anthropology
- published a book named Medicine, magic and religion
- His work incorporated health related issues into medical anthropology
- The study of cross-cultural perspectives in healing systems became prevalent
- recognition that non-western ethnomedicine traditions had a role of magic
and supernatural beings in the causing and curing of illness
- while biomedicine uses the natural laws and scientific principles to
understand the cause and cures of illness
Describe the relationship between the history of the discipline and the applied
vs. academic debate Answer - Argument against applied anthropology: the
quality of the research can be perceived as superficial, impressionistic, less
rigorous, non-theoretical, and those that practice it are a little more than
technicians
Argument against academic anthropology: theories that are used and
developed can sometimes seem abstract, obstructive, and sometimes
irrelevant for those that are seeking practical solutions to specific health
problems
-tensions between these two perspectives can be seen played out in the
history of the birth of the sub-discipline
