After looking up pictures of anthropologists on good images, I realized I have taken a course in anthropology before but it must've have been called ISS or something, because I don't remember ever taken an ANP course before. I couldn't even remember the content of this ISS course until I saw Google pictures of anthropologist having dug up bones, and relating it back to culture. My earlier class was just a course I had to take and I guess I didn't enjoy it much because it didn't make a lasting impression on me at all.
However, ANP 204- Medical Anthropology is different! I feel like I have benefited from this course and the knowledge and the different approaches anthropologists use to learn about medicine relating to culture is something I can use later in my career life as a physician. I learned to not make assumptions or I will try to not be prejudice when it comes to certain diseases. I will know better than to associate a disease with a specific ethnicity. While it is common to identify the culture of a person from their disease in medicine, eg. Cervical Cancer in Asian Women, this labeling is incorrect as anthropologists have discovered after investigating their cultures.
I also discovered from this course that cultural believes are very powerful! For example, the shamans. They are so unlike the health authority with full credentials as doctors, but they possess equally influential power to certain people of certain cultures. When one goes to a shaman, they believe that the shaman could cure them from their debilitating diseases because they can connect to their ancestors in spirits. The Clowns of New York City are the Shamans in the US because through rituals, they cure the ill by lightening their mood, and help them have a better out look on life.
Our own body has miraculous healing powers of its own if we believe it can. I enjoyed the Placebo video a lot. There are times when we don't need real medical procedures to heal from a disease. If we believe it and everyone else around us is will to play along, we might produce a healing effect. This is what is it like to view one as not just a n entity of the body, but the body must be viewed holistically. It is important for a physician to adopt this mind set when treating his patient. A lot of times, treating them mentally- giving them hopes, allows them to get well physically.
However, ANP 204- Medical Anthropology is different! I feel like I have benefited from this course and the knowledge and the different approaches anthropologists use to learn about medicine relating to culture is something I can use later in my career life as a physician. I learned to not make assumptions or I will try to not be prejudice when it comes to certain diseases. I will know better than to associate a disease with a specific ethnicity. While it is common to identify the culture of a person from their disease in medicine, eg. Cervical Cancer in Asian Women, this labeling is incorrect as anthropologists have discovered after investigating their cultures.
I also discovered from this course that cultural believes are very powerful! For example, the shamans. They are so unlike the health authority with full credentials as doctors, but they possess equally influential power to certain people of certain cultures. When one goes to a shaman, they believe that the shaman could cure them from their debilitating diseases because they can connect to their ancestors in spirits. The Clowns of New York City are the Shamans in the US because through rituals, they cure the ill by lightening their mood, and help them have a better out look on life.
Our own body has miraculous healing powers of its own if we believe it can. I enjoyed the Placebo video a lot. There are times when we don't need real medical procedures to heal from a disease. If we believe it and everyone else around us is will to play along, we might produce a healing effect. This is what is it like to view one as not just a n entity of the body, but the body must be viewed holistically. It is important for a physician to adopt this mind set when treating his patient. A lot of times, treating them mentally- giving them hopes, allows them to get well physically.