Purpose: Medical anthropologists have dedicated significant effort to documenting practices and health systems around the globe, from indigenous and tribal communities and urban metropolises to farming communities and groups of migrant workers. In the process they have identified a vast array of healing practices and health systems created by people worldwide- ideas about the causes of health and disease, and varied cultural strategies for addressing pain, curing illness, and promoting health. In this Assignment you will explore how health knowledge is constructed in your life and how culture has shaped your experience of disease and illness.
Instructions:
Consider your strategies for getting healthy or staying healthy. In a 4-6 page paper, answer the following questions:
1) Whom do you consult for health information? (examples- parent, doctor, pharmacist, religious figure, literature, friend, etc.).
2) How does culture shape how you receive and interpret information and communication about health, disease, and illness?
3) What strategies do you use to get well? How did you learn these strategies? (examples- eat particular food, take particular supplement, use medicines).
4) Is there a social cause of illness or disease? What role does social stigma play in whether we do or do not seek treatment
5) What do you think getting sick says about you as a person? Does this depend on symptoms? (example- cold, fever, diarrhea, sexually transmitted disease, heart attack).
6) How does our culture value health in general?