ANTH 435 EXAM 1 STUDY GUIDE {LATEST
2026 -2027 update} QUESTIONS AND
ANSWERS 100% CORRECT
The 5 fields/areas that medical anthropology is related to - correct answer 1.
Paleopathology
2. Public health
3. Epidemiology
4. Bioethics
5. Anthropology
Theoretical perspectives - correct answer - Evolutionary and Evological
- Interpretive
- Critical
- Biocultural
,Evolutionary and Ecological perspective - correct answer Evolutionary: focuses
heavily in the relationship between evolutionary processes, human genetic variation,
and susceptibility to disease Ecological: focuses on environment, but sees the
environment more broadly
- this approach is on the scientific side
Interpretive perspective - correct answer - humanistic approach
- focus on human cultural/ symbolic construction
- diseases are experienced based on cultural constructions
- medical systems are historically and culturally intertwined pragmatic ways of
knowing the world
- goal is to analyze all aspects of health as a set of systems for creating, experiencing,
and communicating meaning in human life
, Critical perspective - correct answer - less humanistic than interpretive but not as
scientific as evolutionary and ecological
- political economy
- origins of dominant cultural constructions in health
- structures of power and inequality in health care systems
- social origins of illness
- you can't understand regional health disparities if you don't also look at political/
economic inequality
Bicultural - correct answer - political ecology of biology and health
- identification of a need to reintroduce human biology (response to critique of critical
perspective)
- focus on models linking social inequalities to human biology
2026 -2027 update} QUESTIONS AND
ANSWERS 100% CORRECT
The 5 fields/areas that medical anthropology is related to - correct answer 1.
Paleopathology
2. Public health
3. Epidemiology
4. Bioethics
5. Anthropology
Theoretical perspectives - correct answer - Evolutionary and Evological
- Interpretive
- Critical
- Biocultural
,Evolutionary and Ecological perspective - correct answer Evolutionary: focuses
heavily in the relationship between evolutionary processes, human genetic variation,
and susceptibility to disease Ecological: focuses on environment, but sees the
environment more broadly
- this approach is on the scientific side
Interpretive perspective - correct answer - humanistic approach
- focus on human cultural/ symbolic construction
- diseases are experienced based on cultural constructions
- medical systems are historically and culturally intertwined pragmatic ways of
knowing the world
- goal is to analyze all aspects of health as a set of systems for creating, experiencing,
and communicating meaning in human life
, Critical perspective - correct answer - less humanistic than interpretive but not as
scientific as evolutionary and ecological
- political economy
- origins of dominant cultural constructions in health
- structures of power and inequality in health care systems
- social origins of illness
- you can't understand regional health disparities if you don't also look at political/
economic inequality
Bicultural - correct answer - political ecology of biology and health
- identification of a need to reintroduce human biology (response to critique of critical
perspective)
- focus on models linking social inequalities to human biology
