According to the website for the Society for Medical Anthropology, it is "a subfield of anthropology thatdraws upon social, cultural, biological, and linguistic anthropology to better understand those factors which influence health and well being (broadly defined), the experience and distribution of illness, the prevention and treatment of sickness, healing processes, the social relations of therapy management, and the cultural importance and utilization of pluralistic medical systems.” (Society for Medical Anthropology website)
It consists of four subfields: - Interpretive - Ecological/Evolutionary - Critical - Applied This site will focus on the latter two.
Why it is important?
Brown and Barrett (2010) explain the importance of medical anthropology. They state, "Medical anthropology provides a unique way of understanding human experiences. This is because all human beings--irrespective of culture, class or historical epoch--experience sickness and death. Simultaneously, all cultures--irrespective of technological complexity--have medical systems that help people cope with the inevitability of sickness, just as all cultures have religious systems that deal with the inevitability of death. Medical anthropology tries to understand the causes of health and illness in societies" (Brown and Barrett 2010: 1).