Anthropology of Health, Essay Example

Medical anthropology attempts to use multiple theories to help explain the social and cultural implications that can often lead to the development or reduction of a health epidemic.  Our text uses the example of the cholera epidemic that infected over 1 million people in South Africa during the time of the author’s fieldwork in Peru.  Similar epidemics can often be explained or analyzed through using medical anthropology theories such as the evolutionary or ecological model.  Under this model the specific nature of the genetic traits for a society as well as the traits of the disease causing agent are studied and analyzed to draw appropriate levels of conclusions.  In many cases, these conclusions may suggest a behavioral or environmental factor that is causing the disease to spread and to reduce fitness for the society within the environment.

As the evolutionary or ecological model was utilized for the cholera epidemic, it could also be applied to other epidemics such as the spread of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which is the pathogen or disease causing agent for the AIDS illness.  Clearly, this model would need to be used to discuss the prevalence of natural selection for the pathogen and discuss how and why it impacts the body.  For instance, not ever individual that has the HIV virus is infected by AIDS.  Many individuals are simply a carrier of the agent that will be passed along to other individuals within the society.  In this case, HIV likely impacts the genotype of the individual or even the individual’s offspring, but it may not impact their phenotype and show any serious health risks.  Natural selection plays a role in this and can be used to discuss the genetic process by which individuals are chosen to be infected by the disease causing agent and which are not.

The concept of mutation must also be discussed for the HIV epidemic.  While the human body attempts to fight off disease by biological processes and internal agents, it is not always enough.  The body, like the disease, must mutate in order to protect itself.  While it is unclear whether the HIV virus has mutated, it is clear that the human body has not mutated to protect against the virus.  There is currently no medicinal cure for the HIV virus, especially when the virus may remain dormant within its host for a given period of time without ever causing damage to the host.  Nevertheless, mutation plays a role in this analysis of the biocultural theoretical framework.

Finally, the cultural and social behaviors that individuals engage in to pass along the HIV virus are critical to a medical anthropologist.  It has been proven that the HIV virus is passed through sexual activity or by individuals encountering bodily fluids where the pathogen is present.  Oftentimes, the cultural or societal perspective suggests that this is a disease that impacts unfaithful men and women or the lesbian and gay population.  Depending on the different sociological views in a culture, the medical anthropologist would be able to determine the diagnosis and potential biases of treatment available for these individuals.  These perspectives are critical for the advancement or determent of cultural ecology for the HIV epidemic.  These different mutated genetic traits and the impact that the pathogens have with the human environment play a critical role in using theoretical method for analysis.  Furthermore, the sociological prejudices of the epidemic also play a role in the spread of the disease as well as how the infected individuals receive treatment.  These factors are critical to understand in order to determine the exact medical anthropological importance.

References

Joralemon, Donald. Exploring Medical Anthropology. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2010. Print.