Medical Anthropology: Scope and importance in the today’s world
Medical anthropology explores how health, culture, and technology intersect, uncovering how social factors and modernisation impact human health. As societies grow more complex, the field is becoming increasingly important
Anthropology is all about humans, society, and culture, from evolution to development. So, medical anthropology's primary concern is perceiving health, illness, and disease in the specific social or cultural context—how the disease emerged and possible solutions to minimise it within the particular context. Therefore, this field applies anthropological theories and methods concerning health, illness, medicine, and healing.
To illustrate the anthropological perspective, consider the contrast between the Korail slum and the neighbouring elite area of Gulshan in Dhaka. Gulshan is known for its upscale accommodations and international business hubs, where water-borne diseases like diarrhoea and giardiasis are virtually nonexistent and contagious skin conditions such as scabies are unheard of.
In stark contrast, the Korail slum faces a persistent struggle with these very health issues, with diarrhoea and scabies being widespread among its residents.
Why is it happening? This can be the starting point of medical anthropology. The answer is simple: due to the lousy sanitation system, unhygienic lifestyles, and lack of pure water, residents are prone to such diseases.
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But the cruel fate is that we often only try to improve these conditions by providing medicine. Biomedicine is undoubtedly essential as it deals with disease but can't ensure the possibility of diminishing a disease in a specific cultural context.
Medical anthropologists believe that to eliminate a disease from a community, the main social factors must be addressed. This is why medical anthropology combines both biological and cultural aspects in understanding health and illness.
Medical anthropology is a relatively new area of specialisation within anthropology. After the Second World War, an increasing number of anthropologists turned their attention to health-related issues, especially applied ones. Some famous medical anthropologists are Margaret Lock, Marcia C Inhorn, Paul Former, etc. Medical anthropology evolved in the 1960s, encompassing health disparities, global health, medical technologies, and bioethics.
As for the Korail slum, the circumstances bound residents to live in messy conditions because of their low earnings. Medical anthropologists try to understand these issues by conducting participant observation or ethnographic fieldwork by amalgamating themselves with locals and preparing reports centring on socio-cultural aspects of the disease.
Besides, sufferer experience is crucial in medical anthropology, as it depicts how a patient expresses their disease or distress. According to Margaret Lock and Nancy Scheper-Hughes, people's state of their body, mental stress, and illness are interceded by social meanings and the political-economic forces that shape daily life. An ill person expresses the feeling of illness through their socially constructed meanings, which, of course, are different from others.
Actually, after the introduction of the modernisation perspective, the scope for anthropologists in the health sector has increased as modernisation is considered a two-edged sword because it creates health problems. Still, at the same time, it provides the necessary resources and knowledge to tackle complexities.
Medical anthropologists found that old diseases are now coming into new ways just because of the adverse effects of modernisation. A careful glance anthropologists pointed out that development projects provide a new breeding site for vector-borne diseases such as malaria and schistosomiasis.
"Kysanur forest disease" is a perfect example of modernisation's countereffect, which is only found in south India. This disease has existed in the ecosystem for a long time, but its prevalence increases whenever forests are cleared for development projects, as logging exposes workers to virus-carrying insects. "Kysanur forest disease" is often called a disease of development because modernisation and development projects are at the root of its outbreak.
The anthropologists' findings assert that hidden development costs are overlooked in the contemporary world and lead to many unforeseen problems closely connected to people's health and well-being. Countries are exploiting resources from the environment through newer methods, and that is why modernisation negatively impacts human health.
The process of increasing food production through the irrigation system is the finest example, which creates new breeding sites for vector-borne diseases—malaria and schistosomiasis. Anthropological findings reveal that efforts to diminish such diseases from society are not entirely successful; instead, the malaria epidemic has been witnessed by several developing and underdeveloped nations.
Due to rapid development activities, industrialisation is quite common in the developing world, but there is no scope for minimising industrial hazards that increase the risk of lung cancer. Industrial discharges are barely maintained in developing countries.
As a result, these discharges go into the river water or other natural water bodies, spoiling the ecosystem. Cite from Bangladesh, water pollution is quite common here, and people are easily attacked with diarrhoea as they drink polluted water due to the shortages of safe drinking water.
Considering the issues of unplanned development activities, medical anthropologists found that the health conditions of urban people are worsening, and asthma, dengue fever, and lung infections are the linchpins of residents.
On top of that, most development activities overlook the social and ecological aspects of human health, and indeed, a top-down development approach does not take into account the aspects of people.
With recent scientific advancements and modern technology, medical anthropologists have broadened their focus. They now study how the body and technology impact health, society, and beliefs. In the growing biotech industry, the human body is often treated as a form of 'biological capital'.
Many anthropologists have researched commercial surrogacy and assisted reproductive technology (ART). Their studies show that commercial surrogacy is often a way to make money by exploiting women's bodies. While donors often see themselves as generous, medical anthropologists have found that these transactions are more like trade, as money is involved either directly or through service providers.
As a result, the term 'donation' is often misleading. In biomedicine, women's bodies are an industry where women are the labourers under the surveillance of doctors. In this type of reproductive factory model, women's bodies are usually controlled by doctors, where women devote their bodies to technology and doctors. Here, women are compared as gestational carriers and not as women.
Two main reasons for reproductive organ transplants, including surrogacy, are poverty and family obligations.
Wandy Chavkin (2010) called this female-centric business as body bits. Many social scientists, especially anthropologists, see a wide gap between declared social policies and what really happens. Marcia C Inhorn's research at IVF clinics in the Middle East shows that due to the abundance of IVF technology, it is common for Sunni couples to go to Shia-dominated areas because these clinics are more in number in Shia territory. Moreover, IVF technology is prohibited by Sunni law.
Research in several parts of the world done by medical anthropologists revealed that although the sale of original body parts such as the hand, leg, eye, ear, etc. is strictly banned, semen, blood, and other fluid substances aren't part of this legal procedure just because of their reproductive quality.
In today's world, societies are growing and becoming more complex, with fewer borders between them. This means the role of medical anthropologists is becoming more important. In the near future, it's expected that anthropologists will be able to better address issues related to health, illness, and reproduction in these increasingly complex societies.
Anas Ibna Rahman is a postgraduate student in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Dhaka.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.
