ANT2410 Assignment 6

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University of Florida *

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2410

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Anthropology

Date

Dec 6, 2023

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docx

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Uploaded by taitai97

Assignment 6 A health care topic that relates to cultural concepts on political anthropology would be public health. “Public health is the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting human health through organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals." (Wikipedia 2017). In the article Anthropology's Contribution to Public Health Policy Development, it focuses on how anthropology is applied and contributes to the public health policy development. Public health and its policy development relates to the concepts state, hegemony and globalization discussed in module 13. Medical anthropology draws upon all four sub-fields of anthropology to better understand factors that influence health, diseases, distribution and prevention of an illness, healing processes, cultural importance and utilization of medical systems and social relations to therapy management. To generalize, medical anthropology studies health care systems, human health and disease, and biocultural adaptation. It relates natural sciences to humanities. Within medical anthropology, there is an intersection of Clinical Medical Anthropology that deals with humanities, bioethics, society and health promotion. Clinical anthropologists work alongside medical professionals and patients in a clinic setting to improve healthcare and management. Political anthropology studies the structure of political systems as the basic structure of society. Public health relates to the cultural concept state because public health is a system of people and organizations that collaborate on a national, state, and local level to promote and protect public health. The policy development contributes to the protection, promotion and improvement of public health while ensuring the public health system remains consistent with laws and regulations. “Today we typically define the state as an autonomous regional structure of

political, economic, and military rule with a central government authorized to make laws and use force to maintain order and defend its territory.” (Guest 2014, pg. 542). With public health relating to state, it also has a correlation to hegemony . “State power is also established through hegemony, which is the ability of a dominant group to create consent and agreement within a population without the use or threat of force.” (Guest 2014, pg. 544). Due to public health being on a state level, the states have the power to self-govern, therefore, some of the health departments are independent or free standing. The health departments serve multiple public health functions which are shared by other agencies in state government (health professionals and other health care facilities.) “Within the hegemony of ideas, some thoughts and actions actually become unthinkable and undoable. Others seem reasonable, necessary, and desirable; these include collective actions for the greater good of the ‘nation’…” (Guest 2014, pg. 545). According to the article, biomedicine is a structure of hegemony. The works of biomedicine is a type of oppositional thinking and is important in creating new theories and changing public health systems. “To this day, one often hears allegations against anthropology for its past as the 'handmaiden' of colonialism. As a result of having to defend itself from these claims, the discipline has become very critical of hegemonic power structures that are involved in neo-colonial oppression of the afflicted and underprivileged. Biomedicine is a classic example of such a potentially oppressive structure.” (Campbell 2011). Public health brings issues to the state, such as globalization . Globalization is the intensification of worldwide interactions and increased movements of people, money and goods within and across national borders. “in a global economy with increasing flows of people, money, goods, and ideas state borders are becoming more porous. As a result, states are increasingly struggling to control who and what enters and leaves their territories. State

sovereignty—the right of the state to maintain self-determination within its borders—is being challenged by powerful international non-state actors.” (Guest 2014, pg. 546). With the U.S. health system being weakened by the intensification of globalization and its impact, it brings a threat to global health progress as well. Anthropology's Contribution to Public Health Policy Development informs us about the importance of the critical perspective in medical anthropology and how it is a crucial component of medical anthropology’s contribution to public health. “ Anthropology is well-positioned to play a key role in the informing of health policy to address these issues. This article has focused on the changes that have occurred in medical anthropology and the anthropology of public health that allow it to be a modern and significant contributing discipline to public health policy development.” (Campbell 2011). Anthropologists can assist in the understanding of public health because with the use of medical anthropology it has the potential to inform public health policies that focuses on the causes of poor health in a population. Anthropologists are able to effectively identify factors that contribute to health and disease outcomes. The role that power, politics and the state play in health care are supporting the services organizations and departments provide while also forming and passing laws and regulations. “Despite a wide range of governance structures, each state’s health department is generally the primary public health authority within the state and plays a key role in supporting the delivery of public health services.” (Publichealthlawcenter 2015). Work Cited:

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"Public Health." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 02 Dec. 2017. Web. 04 Dec. 2017. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_health . "State & Local Public Health: An Overview of Regulatory Authority." Publichealthlawcenter . Apr. 2015. Web. 04 Dec. 2017. http://www.publichealthlawcenter.org/sites/default/files/resources/phlc-fs-state-local-reg- authority-publichealth-2015_0.pdf . Campbell, Dave. "Anthropology's Contribution to Public Health Policy Development." McGill Journal of Medicine: MJM . McGill University, 13 June 2011. Web. 04 Dec. 2017. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3277334 . Guest, Kenneth. 2014. "Anthropology In the 21st Century" in Cultural Anthropology: A Toolkit for a Global Age. Pages 542-546. New York.

ANT2410 Assignment 6

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