Evolution And History

306 CHAPTER 13 | Human Adaptation to a Changing World

places while also providing them with Western medicine.

Medical anthropologists during this early period translated

local experiences of sickness into the scientific language

of Western biomedicine. Following a reevaluation of this

ethnocentric approach in the 1970s, medical anthropol-

ogy emerged as a specialization that brings theoretical and

applied approaches from cultural and biological anthropol-

ogy to the study of human health and sickness.

Medical anthropologists study medical systems, or

patterned sets of ideas and practices relating to illness.

Medical systems are cultural systems, similar to any other

social institution. Medical anthropologists examine heal-

ing traditions and practices cross-culturally and the quali-

ties all medical systems have in common. For example,

the terms used by French cultural anthropologist Claude

Lévi-Strauss to describe the healing powers of shamans

(the name for indigenous healers, originally from Siberia,

and now applied to many traditional healers) also apply to

medical practices in Europe and North America.^6 In both

situations, the healer has access to a world of restricted

The anthropological perspective holds that, beyond bi-

ology, cultural factors must be taken into account in any

examination of human sickness and suffering. Human-

made environments are shaped not only by local culture

but by global political and economic systems. In short, an-

thropological perspectives are vital for successful adapta-

tion to today’s changing world.

The Development

of Medical Anthropology

Medical anthropology, a specialization that cuts across all

four fields of anthropology, contributes significantly to the

understanding of sickness and suffering in the 21st century.

Some of the earliest medical anthropologists were individ-

uals trained as physicians and ethnographers who investi-

gated the health beliefs and practices of peoples in “exotic”

Visual Counterpoint

© Topham/The Image Works © Ronnie Kaufman/Corbis

Shamans and biomedical doctors both rely upon manipulation of symbols to heal their pa-

tients. The physician’s white coat is a powerful symbol of medical knowledge and authority

that communicates to patients just as clearly as does the shaman’s drum. Interestingly, medi-

cal schools in the United States are increasingly incorporating a “white coat” ceremony into

medical education, conferring the power of the white coat onto new doctors.

medical system A patterned set of ideas and practices relat-

ing to illness.

(^6) Lévi-Strauss, C. (1963). The sorcerer and his magic. In Structural anthro-
pology. New York: Basic.
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