Being an American, we are the people of the United States that are supposed to uphold the “American Dream.” For instance, allowing equality of all individuals, providing employment opportunities, and allowing everyone to benefit from medical assistance. However, in reality, the “o Dream” has some positive and negative aspects of life. The positive aspects of American life are: independence that other countries are less fortunate to have and providing better opportunities to choose on how you want to live your life. The negative aspect of American life is America view other countries to be poor and malnourish, because they do not have all of the materialistic items that America is fortunate to have.
After reading and analyzing both books on the different aspects of anthropology and the methods used in the medical field, both books allowed me to exemplify my thoughts on each book. So, anthropology has a valuable contribution in the field of culture. Anthropology will be exemplified in varies ways. There are two divisions-four main fields of anthropology. Whereas the focus for medical ecology is adaption. Medical anthropology perspective focus on health, treatment, and results that will allow comparison and contrast to occur from Medical Anthropology in Ecological Perspective and Dancing Skeleton Life and Death in West Africa.
From the first edition to the sixth edition of Medical Anthropology in Ecological Perspective, anthropology has been evaluated and revised. The first and second edition expanded on medical anthropology, while the third edition had growth on research of biocultural and political ecology health. The fourth edition expanded on the environmental health between social and medical scientists, while the fifth and sixth edition focused on the economic inequality and health disparities.
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With each edition, anthropology was the main key. Anthropology is simply the study of human variation and biological culture. I learned that anthropology is used to analyze how humans adapt to different environments. However, the two divisions-four main fields of anthropology consist of: physical anthropology, archaeology, linguistics, and cultural anthropology. Physical anthropology is defined as study of human characteristics. Archaeology is the study of human remains “skeleton.” Linguistics is the study of sound and speech. Cultural anthropology is the study of cultural research.
Now with the background of anthropology, the different health diseases and environmental changes led to medical ecology. From chapter one of Medical Anthropology in Ecological Perspective, ecology was use by an anthropologist starting a research in Nepal. The research was about comparing and contrasting homeless boys, middle school boys, and remote farm village boys. From the research, I concluded that the purpose of this research was to collect data on the growth and development of survival rate from the children(boys). However, the results showed some of the boys were healthier than expected, some had more protein in their blood (which indicated they were ill), while others remained healthy. With two decades gone by, some of the boys were able to find somewhere to live and work, while others either went to school or remain homeless.
So, with the Nepal research, the research led to anthropologists to study the affects of society, health, and more. For example, Medical Anthropology in Ecological Perspective did a research on how society interprets autism. McElroy, Ann, and Patricia K. Townsend stated, “autism is a neuro-developmental disorder beginning in early childhood.” From society and social perspective, numerous individuals stereotype individuals who are diagnose with autism. For instance; McElroy, Ann, and Patricia K. Townsend said, “Korean families call autism a reactive attachment disorder, while the United States calls autism either a disability or mental retardation.” With myself having family members who have autism, this study made me analyze how others define an individual. I consider individuals with autism to be normal human beings who are precise on how they want materialistic items to be place, or individuals who have difficult learning abilities that needs others to be more attentive to him or her.
As mention before, medical ecology focus is on adaptation. Adaptation allows individuals to find a way to make modifications to an environment for survival. In fact, having humans adapt from being in warm weather to being in cold weather allows them to adapt to different environmental climates. Another example is allowing Ghana natives to adapt to American citizens to help them with their health issues. We as humans adapt to the environment similar to other species. With species having thick fur, it allows them to adapt to the brisk weather, while humans have to use cotton or animal’s fur to adapt to the brisk weather. Another example, having Americans adapt to rural country that does not have all the materialistic items that Americans are used to.
Furthermore, McElroy, Ann, and Patricia K. Townsend stated, “the basic unit of study in ecology is a population.” Ecology provides the insight for the analysis of health and diseases to be analyzed and treated. With the research on the different methods and health problems, the research shows the different methods individuals’ intake during health problems. The methods consist of: self-care (uses medicinal plants or over the counter medication), traditional shamans and midwives (traditional specialist healer), and modern generation treatment (uses clinics and hospitals).
With those health methods, the methods lead to another aspect of anthropology which is clinical medicine. Now, clinical medicine is when treatment is given to a patient to cure the illness or sickness that may cause a disease. For instance, clinical medicine may be given or used by: self-care (patient using herbal plants or taking over the counter medication), traditional healers (having shamans and midwives), or modern generation treatment (care givers providing prescription).
Still using some of the methods to treat individuals, in Mali, the natives treat circumcision remotely different than Americans. Just comparing Bambara (Mali) to Americans (United States) medical expectation of circumcision, only males get circumcised in America. While in Mali, the natives circumcise both genders, male and female. In Mali, the natives’ perspective on circumcision is based on tradition.
No one questions why both genders get circumcised in Mali. The Bambara people believe that having both boy and girl circumcised gains their initial transition into becoming a male and female. Now in America, people think circumcising both genders are ridiculous. On the other hand, America’s perspective on circumcision is just to circumcise the male only by the parents’ choice. In America, circumcision is done at an early age of a boy’s life. Circumcision consists of the removal of the foreskin, while in Mali the removal the entire head of both genders. Even though both countries do circumcision, they contrast in many ways due to different beliefs.
Moreover, after understanding the meaning behind “dancing skeleton,” it made me wonder how children and adults survive in those conditions. The background story of the “dancing skeleton” was the children were dancing to celebrate their countries independence, but the narrator could not sustain the urge to watch the children dance. She described them to be skinny and malnourish. Those children were so malnourished that you could count their ribs. With those children looking ill, she left the celebration, because she could not bear the sight of the children dancing when they should be resting to save energy to fight off infection and other conditions. So, the background of that story gave the narrator the idea to call those children the “dancing skeleton.”
Another story in the book that compares to American life was the story of mother love and death of children. Even though one of the most important factors of the book, Dancing Skeleton Life and Death in West Africa, is children suffering from malnutrition. I think the mothers’ love and death of their children played a key factor in their lives physically and mentally.
So, anthropologists studied their stories and try to understand the environment they were in, the number of children they had, the number of children that died, the number of children that survive, and how they cope with the situation. After Dettwyler did her research on the women of Mali losing their children, she resulted in finding out that the children mostly died due to: malaria, fever, diarrhea, and more.
Even though some women cried talking about their children, women in society cope with life in a different way. Losing a child or children is devastating to all women; Compared to America, American women losing a child is devastating. The reason it is devastating to American women, because it is commonly rare for women to lose a child or children than women in Mali. However, the difference between American women having children and women of Mali having children, American women have a choice on if they want to have a child or children. On the other hand, Mali women do not have a choice on having children, because they have to follow their tradition. Many women in Mali have six to ten children. In Mali, they consider six to ten children to be normal. While in America, having six to ten children is considered a blessing but a challenge to tolerate as well.
In conclusion, after understanding the different perspectives on how anthropology is used in other countries, it made me have a broader aspect on other countries. Even though other countries mainly follow traditions more than what America is used to, both countries have some similarities that each country can benefit from. So, the different fields of anthropology are used universally to help everyone in need.
Works Cited
- McElroy, Ann, and Patricia K. Townsend. Medical Anthropology in Ecological Perspective. 6th ed., Westview Press, 2015.
- Dettwyler, Katherine A. Dancing Skeleton Life and Death in West Africa. 20th ed., Waveland Press Inc., 2014.
