What Is Medical Anthropology?

LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of this section, you will be able to do the following: Social Construction of Health The World Health Organization defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of…

Introduction

Figure 17.1 The US Army Corp of Engineers opened this community health clinic in the country of Benin in West Africa in 2013. The clinic has waiting, consultation, observation and treatment rooms, and a drug store. (credit: “Pehunco Health Clinic opens” by…

Summary

Art, music, and sports are deeply intertwined with the human experience. Anthropology offers the space to examine art, music, and sports through a cultural lens in order to study the ways in which they exist within sociocultural frameworks. The anthropology…

Anthropology of Music

LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of this section, you will be able to: Music Music is found in wide-ranging settings and format, including chants, musicals, live performances, recorded performances, and spiritual rituals. In prehistoric times, music was used to communicate,…

Anthropology of the Arts

LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of this section, you will be able to: The anthropology of the arts can include various approaches to interpreting art forms, including analyses of the symbolic meanings represented, the mediums through which art is disseminated,…

Introduction

Figure 16.1 The Colosseum in Rome played a role similar to a professional football stadium today. Here, tens of thousands of Romans gathered to view competitions that not only entertained but also contributed to a sense of belonging and identity. (credit: “Colosseum”…

Summary

Anthropologists use long-term ethnographic fieldwork and holistic perspectives to study media genres such as photography, film, radio, television, and digital media. In visual anthropology, gaze theory is used to think about the relationship between viewers and the people depicted in…

Digital Media, New Socialities

LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of this section, you will be able to: As much of this textbook demonstrates, anthropologists most often conduct research on topics involving face-to-face sociocultural interaction such as public ceremonies, religious rituals, work, political activities, and…