Exploring the Significance of Medical Anthropology in Healthcare

The writer of “why is anthropology important essay” will define anthropology and medical anthropology and their roles. This essay will also discuss why medicine and anthropology are holistic and why and how to help understand disease. This will also include how people understand illness from a culturally involved perspective. The author will also define culture in anthropology. Presenting examples of these diseases, discuss how to use the theoretical methods of medical anthropology to understand the diseases. This article will also include medical anthropological factors, such as society, religion, and how they can help understand disease, find cures, and prevent disease. How do people get help for these diseases, such as where do they receive treatment? 

Anthropology is the study of human beings. Medicine is a field of research in cultural anthropology, combining the concepts of biology and culture to better understand human health and disease. It is holistic because it is based on observing reality and insisting that human behavior should not be isolated from institutional relationships, biology or the environment. It helps to understand diseases through main directions, such as working to provide services to economically poor countries to improve social public health. 

Beginning in the 1960s, medical anthropologists have developed important directions. They view population as biological and cultural units, and conduct research on ecosystems, human assessment, and health. It is a comprehensive interdisciplinary company that uses many methods to solve important human problems. This is also a scientific study of origin, focused on human behavior and its physical, social and cultural development. Culture refers to the way of thinking of a particular society, what they believe in, and the characteristics of a particular time and place. According to Miller in 2011, Western biomedical methods are usually used for rehabilitation, private rehabilitation or body fluid rehabilitation. The rehabilitation dance of Julian, the collector of the Kalahari, is performed several times a month. This is done to attract the collective energy of the participants. Healers use the spiritual energy of dancers and singers to increase their consciousness. In the process, the therapist can cure the disease that needs treatment. 

Culture provides a worldview for people who share it and guide their knowledge, practices, and attitudes. It is necessary to realize that the processes of health and disease are included in this worldview and social practice. There are different types of methods in anthropology that help to understand the impact of culture on disease. These basic methods of medical anthropology are biological methods, ecological methods, ethics, critical methods, and applied methods. 

In biological anthropology, most research is related to important issues of human health and disease, and therefore intersects with the field of medical anthropology. The many contributions of biological anthropology help explain the relationship between evolutionary processes, human genetic variation, and the different ways in which humans are responsible for and sometimes resist diseases and other environmental stress factors. The growth of the disease in the early population helps people better understand current trends. Low population density at the time of disease does not support serious infectious diseases. In biological methods, anthropologists can witness chronic diseases called diseases of civilization, such as cancer, which is a type of heart disease and is considered to be the leading cause of adult death worldwide. Through biological methods, anthropologists understand many diseases that have shared causes due to human changes. 

The ecological method refers to the relationship between living things and their location. It shows how people adapt to the old and new environment. Some people's adaptation to the environment may allow them to obtain different types of health experiences. Some may be exposed to the environment and get sick or susceptible to any form of disease. Anthropologists use an ecological perspective to understand disease patterns. In this ecological approach, disease incidence can be measured or compared over time and across geographic spaces. For example, pollution in urban areas can make people sick. 

The ethical approach is known as a local system of local beliefs and practices surrounding health and disease. Interventions and medical concepts in health and disease in different societies, including people views or behaviors on well-being and recovery. Examine the health-related theories and knowledge that people inherit and learn through life or researching specific cultures. In this way, anthropologists around the world began to have clear descriptions and classifications. According to Simbayi, South Africans generally believe that indigenous people belief in HIV often hinders prevention and treatment activities. The other belief about HIV is that cleaning the genitals after sex can prevent HIV infection. Others think that if you have sex with a virgin, AIDS will be treated. Lack of education and knowledge will cause people to die from avoidable things. For example, some people believe that if they become traditional healers, they will treat HIV. You can prevent HIV by using birth control pills, condoms, and other items. If they have it, they can go to the clinic to get antiretroviral medicine. Hypertension is a disease and rarely has its own direct manifestations. It is a major distributor of heart disease, kidney failure, and stroke. This is believed to be caused by obesity, so it is suggested that a diet high in potassium and calcium may be the protective effect of this disease. Aerobic exercise and fitness, high-level exercise, can help lower blood pressure and prevent this condition. Diabetes is a common disease of blood sugar metabolism and has many serious physical consequences. Diabetes can cause blindness, kidney disease, atherosclerosis, which can lead to heart attacks. This is believed to be caused by obesity, which can reduce the amount of insulin in human cells. Insulin can be injected to increase the level of insulin in the body. People with certain diseases can see a doctor or go to a clinic. It can be prevented by eating healthy foods with less acid. Tuberculosis continues to be a threat to the world. Due to the increased cure rate and decreased treatment errors, the treatment success rate of new smear-positive and smear-negative extrapulmonary tuberculosis patients has improved in South Africa. Tuberculosis prevention strategies include treating potential tuberculosis infections in high-risk groups, reducing infectivity and transmission time. Early antiretroviral therapy for people living with HIV. People with this disease can go to the clinic for a tuberculosis test and then wait for the results of the test so that they can treat it. In dusty or smoky places, covering your nose and mouth with musk and reducing smoking can also prevent this. 

To conclude the essay and sum up why  is anthropology important it is neede to say that medical anthropologists understand the treatment culture that designed these diseases. When they clearly understand the culture of a particular place, they will easily know which diagnostic method can help those people, because they know their beliefs, so the diagnosis will be close to their norms. They help people by understanding their culture so they can easily come up with treatment options.