CHAPTER 14: MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Name:

True/False

Indicate whether the sentence or statement is true or false.

Medical anthropologists tend to believe that Western biomedicine is uniformly effective, regardless of the cultural context in which it is practiced.

Medical anthropologists have studied the effects of the sickle-cell gene among Greek families in Montreal.

People who lived in foraging societies appear to have enjoyed relatively good health.

According to sources quoted in your textbook, after humans moved from Mesolithic (hunting and gathering) to Neolithic (farming and herding) modes of subsistence, health status declined rather than improved.

The infant mortality rate in foraging societies is much lower than in modern industrial states.

Demographers believe that city death rates exceeded the birth rates until the mid-19th century.

In The Woman in the Body anthropologist Emily Martin argues that there is little connection between what is written in medical textbooks and doctors’ real attitudes toward women.

Because of stricter government controls, it is unlikely that events similar to those which occurred at the Love Canal could happen in Canada.

Public health measures, like effective sewage disposal and the provision of clean water, have probably been more successful in extending average life expectancy than dramatic medical discoveries.

10.

Traditional shamanism and herbal medicine disappeared from state societies.

Multiple Choice

Identify the letter of the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.

11.

The branch of medical anthropology which deals with the causes of disease and patterns of distribution in populations is called ___________.

a.	ethnohistory
b.	critical medical anthropology
c.	biocultural or biomedical anthropology
d.	pharmaceutical anthropology
e.	cultural constructionism

12.

The branch of medical anthropology which explores the cultural context of disease, or the ways in which cultural beliefs and perceptions affect people’s health and the treatment of disease is called____________.

a.	cultural constructionism
b.	biocultural or biomedical anthropology
c.	critical medical anthropology
d.	functionalism
e.	cultural materialism

13.

The branch of medical anthropology which considers the political economy and ecology of health is called _________.

a.	biocultural or biomedical anthropology
b.	ethnoscience
c.	cultural interpretive anthropology
d.	critical medical anthropology
e.	structuralism

14.

The “thrifty genotype” refers to ______________.

a.	a genetic adaptation found in Scotland, confirming the compatibility between folk wisdom and scientific knowledge
b.	a postulated genetic adaptation among Native American populations which aided in surviving famine but now leads to susceptibility to diabetes
c.	a genetic adaptation which makes some populations resistant to childhood diseases
d.	a tendency to have relatively few children during periods of economic scarcity
e.	the relatively few eggs released by the ovaries of female mammals, when compared to the number of male gametes

15.

According to Frank Livingstone, the presence of the gene for sickle-cell anemia in the human gene pool is most closely linked to______________.

a.	the introduction of irrigation agriculture
b.	the domestication of animals
c.	the conditions in early factories
d.	the chemicals released in making plastics
e.	the use of pesticides in Third World countries

16.

What proportion of the African-American population carries the sickle-cell gene in its heterozygous form?

a.	75%
b.	100%
c.	50%
d.	25
e.	10%

17.

What proportion of African-Americans is estimated actually to have sickle- cell anaemia?

a.	100%
b.	50%
c.	5%
d.	3/10 of 1%
e.	25%

18.

In the 19^th century a wide range of diseases, including epilepsy and heart disease were believed by leading physicians to be linked to__________.

a.	horseback riding
b.	meat eating
c.	masturbation
d.	travel in railway cars
e.	wearing tight shoes

19.

Drapetomania” was the name of a disease which some doctors in the 19^th century believed caused__________.

a.	women to become obsessed with home decoration
b.	children to hide because they were frightened of strangers
c.	people of both sexes to become afraid of revealing their bodies
d.	slaves to want to escape
e.	children to become frightened of horses falling down in the street

20.

Claude Lévi-Strauss describes a shamanic performance among the Cuna Indians in which .

a.	a shaman helps a woman to deliver a baby by resorting to western biomedicine
b.	a shaman achieves a successful delivery through the use of herbs
c.	a shaman helps a woman to deliver successfully by telling her a story in which good and bad supernatural forces battle each other
d.	a shaman uses fraud to make it appear that his intervention in a delivery was successful
e.	a shaman attempts to help a woman deliver a baby, but both mother and baby die

21.

According to Nancy-Schepher Hughes and Margaret Lock medical anthropologists must study________.

a.	the individual’s lived experience of being sick or well
b.	the ways in which the body and society are used as metaphors for each other
c.	the structures of power in society
d.	all of the above
e.	a and c only

22.

According to a study done by Dr. Ira Susser among homeless women in New York City HIV/AIDS is not perceived to be a threat because .

a.	homeless women have little knowledge about the HIV/AIDS epidemic
b.	homeless women have a relatively low change of becoming infected with HIV/AIDS
c.	homeless women in New York have better access to anti-retroviral drugs than women in other parts of the U.S.
d.	homeless women expect to die so soon from other causes that HIV/AIDS is not a primary concern
e.	homeless women mainly use alternative health care providers who have better strategies for dealing with HIV/AIDS than practitioners of biomedicine

23.

Dara Culhane of Simon Fraser University leads an applied anthropology research project in which .

a.	homeless women on Vancouver’s East Side are housed in cooperative residences
b.	homeless women are dispersed and integrated in middle-class neighbourhoods
c.	homeless women are reconnected with their families of origin and encouraged to return to them
d.	homeless women are provided with job training and other services to help them become self-sufficient, but are not given housing
e.	homeless women are provided with vitamins, condoms, and mental-health counseling, while continuing to live on the streets

24.

Which of the following is a central argument of Critical Medical Anthropology?

a.	It does no good to bring medical care to the poor if they lack the discipline and knowledge to follow instructions.
b.	Maintenance of good health is largely an individual responsibility.
c.	Western biomedicine has little to offer people in the developing world.
d.	Most health problems can be solved by education and the provision of western-style medical services.
e.	Health issues can not be separated from social and economic inequality.

25.

When people living at the site of the former Love Canal first reported health problems U.S. authorities

a.	launched an extensive investigation to find the source of the problem.
b.	imposed fines on the company which had used the site to dump toxic wastes.
c.	called the people making the complaints “hysterical housewives.”
d.	hired an anthropologist to investigate the culture of polluting companies.
e.	hired an anthropologist to study how the nutritional and other health-related behaviours of the residents might have adversely affected their health.

26.

According to anthropologist Rayna Rapp___________

a.	Medical professionals usually favour termination of pregnancy when amniocentesis reveals a foetal abnormality, but women frequently fail to follow this advice.
b.	Medical professionals usually maintain a neutral position concerning termination of pregnancy when counselling women whose babies are likely to be born with abnormalities.
c.	Medical professionals usually disapprove of women who choose to terminate a pregnancy after amniocentesis shows a foetal abnormality.
d.	Women almost always follow the advice of medical professionals when choosing whether to terminate a pregnancy when amniocentesis reveals a problem.
e.	Women almost always choose to terminate a pregnancy when amniocentesis reveals a problem, regardless of the advice of medical practitioners.

27.

Which of the following is NOT a result of the influence of pharmaceutical companies in health research, according to Ken Silverstein?

a.	a search for drugs which primarily benefit the wealthy
b.	research on anti-depressant medications for pets
c.	concerted efforts to find effective treatments for malaria and other tropical diseases
d.	the development and use of Viagra
e.	the use of botulism toxins (Botox) to reduce wrinkles

28.

Allan Young of McGill University has argued that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is__________.

a.	an under treated and debilitating mental illness
b.	a disease constructed by the psychiatric establishment
c.	a physiological condition which has been wrongly seen as an emotional disorder
d.	an illness caused by spirits
e.	an illness caused by sexual repression

29.

According to Naomi Adelson Cree theories of health and disease ___________.

a.	display a tendency to discount the physical causes of illness because illness is seen as entirely spiritual in cause
b.	are consistent with the mind/body dualism of Western science
c.	assume a close connection between human health and the health of the surrounding environment, including animals and plants
d.	should be replaced with modern biomedicine to improve the health of the Cree population
e.	are a recent invention with little basis in tradition

30.

Penny Van Esterik is well known for her work____________.

a.	to combat the marketing of breast milk substitutes in the Third World
b.	in support of the distribution of sterile needles to heroin addicts in Toronto
c.	to restrict the distribution of genetically modified foods in Canada
d.	to ban household detergents containing phosphates
e.	in support of exercise programs in inner-city schools