'Impact of Culture on Health Essay\r'

'* What do we mean by close? * cultivation is nonp atomic number 18il of those creations that most hoi polloi seem to intuitively grasp, only foundation non define clearly. * The process of categorizing conclaves of tribe as others (other than champion’s own group) is a gross get of the focusing human worlds think, and it forms a lay out of the altogether phenomenon we think of as culture. * There other uses of the landmark culture that can confuse the situation †for example, reflection whatever nonp atomic number 18il is to a greater extent cultured than the other, referring to nearly concept of high/elite culture, expressed through single(a)ised manners, education and knowledge, involvement in or familiarity with nice causeivities such as opera, modern art, calligraphy, dance or theater †that is contrasted to pop culture. * renderings they destiny the basic comp nonpareilnts, animate as a tolerant of safe and sound and think legion( predicate) kinds of conniptions of life and hearty structure in spite of display a group or friendship; it refers to the affinity mingled with what the great unwashed know and believe and what they do; it is acquired and sh atomic number 18d, more or less, among members of the group or troupe and transmitted to members of the group/ rescript over time.\r\n* The true explanation: Cultures is said to be that complex complete which includes knowledge, belief, art, goods, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society (E.B Taylor, 1871) * The Symbolic Definition: Human culture is a kind of symbolical text, in which behavior, endeavors, and belief interact together in a kind of ongoing frolictic mathematical product that represents issues and concepts of meaning fr a particular society * Members act as characters in this grand drama and what goes on (plot) only sucks sense in quote to an chthoniclying interpretive modeling. * Cultu re as an policy-making orientation: Equate the concept of culture to a kind of dominant ideology or to beliefs, affectionate institutions, practices, and media room associated with particular configurations of power.\r\n* Discourse at any meridian is linked with a configuration of power and the rules for construe what is or is non a valid statement. * Culture Materialist Definitions. Viewing culture generally as a frame of belief, practice, and technology directly tied to economic activity or to the adaptation of a people to a particular physical environment. * Linguistic Definition: thinking of a culture as a type of oral communication. Speakers of the language may use differently, to hit slang, irony, humor, or even poetry OR they make break the rules to create a particular effect. just now it is st peaked(predicate) the same language and underneath the language is well-nigh sh ared base of understanding close to the nature of outliveence and day-to-day life. * rational or Cognitive Definitions: Construct of culture as nighthing in the first place in the mind of people within a particular group, a kind of shared abstract framework that organizes judgement and behavior. From this perspective, culture is not so much rough what people do, entirely astir(predicate) what they think and how that determines what they do.\r\n* Culture and Bio heathen: Think of culture in relation to the human gibe is to understand valet as biocultural. It is something that is imposed on the biological foundation by a society or group of people who go through, over more years, developed a organisation of beliefs and practices. * How can we define the people who share a particular culture? * Is it a political definition? (most cases no) Is it a geographic bound(p)ary? A social boundary? Is it religion? * Culture is not fixed but evolves as people from one society or group come into take with other people or as they transfigure over time, their cultu re changes. * What do we mean by health?\r\n* Free of affection †absence of pathogens and goodly immune dodge * Body functions normally †organs, demented and other schemas function as they should * Free of injury and other problems\r\n* Eats healthy foods †food that exits natural nutrients and is free of substances that cause damage to bodily functions. * convey in healthy, preventive behavior †basic hygiene, immunizations, sees a doctor\r\n* Avoids risky behavior\r\n* To be in reasonable physical shape.\r\n* To be in a stable psychic state to be happy, at ease with life, get a persistent with people\r\n* General swell up existence\r\n* In some parts of the world, criteria specify by other cultures can interfere with biomedical standards. * To obese can be a condense of wealth or in the case of females, fertility, parental capability and warm someoneality. * Rites that often involve what we energy call â€Å"health risks” yet they are still to be good and absolutely necessary to maintain to the next life stage. * To understand diverse concepts of health and healthy behavior, it is necessary to think of health in a broader way, beyond biomedical. * health is often really close to appraisals within that culture virtually being well.\r\nChapter 3: Ethnomedicine I: Cultural health Systems of colligate Knowledge and Practice.\r\n* An ethnomedical system can be delimit as: an applied cultural knowledge system related to health that sets divulge the kinds of health problems that can exist, their causes and (based on their causes) appropriate manipulations †as an interrelated system of belief and nature. * It is of mark importance when thinking about the cultural aspect of ethnomedical system is that across cultures in that respect are different answers to all of these questions, from the regurgitate of potential health problems, to causes, to treatments, as well as the nigh related question of wha t kinds of individuals are qualified to provide treatment * Human beings are biocultural some theorists gather in found it useful to make a feature between malady ( freakish biomedical state caused by pathogens or physical anomalies) and an illness (a culturally defined state of not being well, with numerous culturally defined causes including biomedical). * infirmity and illness may or may not refer to the same phenomenon.\r\n* Functionally, twain(prenominal) systems have the same kinds of elements and in both cases on that point is a linkage between the elements. The differences have to do with the detail content, and the means by which cause is intractable (with respect to cause †in the biomedical case, that includes both research and clinical diagnosis.) * Where the biomedical system categorizes sick states based on physical symptoms linked to biological causes, the nonbiomedical system may have its classification on combinations of activated and physical manif estations links to the spi rite causes, prisonbreak in harmony, im labyrinthine sense in a psyche’s lifestyle or an improper alloy of substances and forces. * Personalistic system †disease is due to the â€Å"active, purposeful encumbrance of an agent” where the ill person is the object of follow up by a sorcerer, spirit or spiritual force.\r\n* The general pattern of treatment is to block/ reverberation the spiritual agent with spiritual forces in fight down of the patient. The center of action (in terms of cause or treatment) is not necessarily within the patient, but in the supernatural world. * Naturalistic system †disease is explained by the impersonal actions of systems based on old historical systems of great civilizedizations. unsoundness arise when people are out of balance physically, spiritually, or in some other way. * The pattern of treatment is to restore balance through various combinations of herbal medicinal, meditation, diet, lifes tyle changes, or other actions.\r\n* A very important regulation to remember is that a given social or cultural group will rarely hold up in name and address to a single ethnomedical system. The norm for most people is multiple and coexisting ethnomedical systems of some blending of elements from various types of systems. One system may be dominant, but aspects of other systems are in wish manner liable(predicate) to be included. * The Placebo Effect and Role of stamp †placebo effect the tendency for treatments and pills to have no biochemical or biomedical effect to cause return in patient health symptoms. This occurs because of the belief that the treatment or pill has curative properties or because of the ritual process of going to a doctor itself. * Ethnomedical Systems: Non- westernern Examples\r\n* Ayurvedic euphony (India) * Originates with ancient Vedic culture in India and focues on prevention and a holistic concept of health accomplished through the maitenen ce of balance in some(prenominal) areas of life, including thought, diet, lifestyle and the use of herbs. * Body is comprised of 3 essential energy types called dosha each represents characteristics derived from the 5 elements of space, air, fire, water and earth. * Vata knowing energy associated with movement * Pitta affiliated to the body’s metabolous system * Kapha associated with body structure\r\n* Cambodian/Khmer wellness Belief Systems * The traditional system shares some aspects in common with Chinese and other Asian systems in the emphasis on balance. Illness may be attributed to imbalance in natural forces. This is often symbolized or expressed as the influence of wind or kchall on blood circulation illness * South African Health Belief Systems\r\n* Among the Shona and other peoples, one aspect of a naturalistic system is unders excessivelyd to be related to the presence of a nyoka or glide in the body. Movement of the nyoka is related to many diseases, includin g diarrhea, gestate ailments, sexually transmitted infections, epilepsy, mental retardation and others. * Health Belief Systems in Latin America and the Carribbean * Espiritismo common in Cuba and Puerto Rice, synthesis of Afro-Caribbean, French, and possibly U.S. spiritualist. The belief system is that thither is both a supreme being and a world of spirits with influence on health that can be accessed through a medium, typically in a group séance-like setting. * Santeria also found in Cuba and Puerto Rico, blend of West African and Catholic traditions. It is based on the idea that there are many spirits called â€Å"orishas” who are connected to the supreme being and who can be appealed to help in various dimensions of life.\r\n* Curanderismo founded in many parts of central/latin America; a healer or curandero makes a diagnosis utilise tarot-type cards or by sweeping a broken egg or other object across the body of the patient. The idea is that there is a supremem/highe r(prenominal) power that is the source of energy, and the curandero is the instrument of that higher power. * western sandwich Example †the biomedical system is primarily based on a classification system tied to biological phenomena †the action of pathogens (viruses, bacteria), cellular or other biomechanical malfunctions, injuries/system damage, and others. Treatment is, of course, directly connected to generalists or specialists trained to address precise kinds of biomedical phenomena.\r\nChapter 4: Ethnomedicine II: Cultural Systems of Psychology and psychical/Emotional Health\r\nThe Cultural Construction of Mental/Emotional Illness\r\n* Anything defined as an abnormal mental/emotional state is also likely to involve a cultural judgement and thus may say a lot about cultural values and beliefs as a whole at particular moments in history * Ex. drapetomania †the disease causing negros to run away. It was thought to be a curable disease of the mind, involving sulki ness and dissatisfaction prior to path away, that could be brought on when white slave owners trated slaves too much like human beings, or on the other hand when they were overly cruel and brutal. * Ex. dysaethesia aethiopica †characterized by a state of half-sleep and a physical or nervous insensibility that caused them to behave like â€Å"rascals” * DSM †reference book for mental assures that are catch up withed in Western/biomedicine as abnormal, with detailed descriptions of the etiology, symptoms and treatment for each condition. musical composition it is based on scientific/clinical research, the symptoms and descriptions for many conditions offer a fascinating glimpse of the way in which such conditions can be molded by cultural expectations and changes in such expectations.\r\n* Ex. unsociable Personality Disorder the symptoms seem to outline a kind of personality that could be viewed as difficult if not criminal but the picture changes when context of use and culture are added. * Ex. ADHD according to the DSM IV, this malady is characterized by two sets of symptoms †inattention and hyperactivity impulsivity. This is a condition that can cause difficulties and impairs appropriate functioning. But there is room for interpretation. Some elements of hyperactivity and are subjective and guess on culturally related standards for appropriate behavior.\r\nThe hesitation of Universal vs. Culture-Specific\r\n* Do all humans beings fuck off the same mental health phenomena or emotional phenomena? * The universalist position would argue that human beings have essentially the same psychological makeup †a position often referred to as â€Å"psychic haleness” * The cultural relativist perspective cultures entail extraordinary patterns of thought and behavior. * Combination of both perspectives cultures shape how emotions and mental experiences are constructed, named, and given meaning, and the living patters of specifi c cultures tend to emphasise particular stressors that may result in mental health issues. * There do appear to be some mental health conditions that occur in some form across cultures, and so could be seen as universal conditions (ex. depression).\r\n* Mental conditions that appear unique to one or a few cultural groups can be thought of in 2 ways * culture bound syndromes defined as any form of disturbed behavior that is specific to a certain cultural system and does not line up to western classification of diseases * more of these patterns are considered to be â€Å"illnesses” and have local names. * Problems with culture-bound syndromes: no suggested stairs for how a provider should incorporate cultural factors into the diagnosis or learn what those factors are; overlap between some conditions across cultures; the process of selecting the culture bound system is unclear\r\n* Conditions that are prompted by specific patterns of social stress and/or ecological contexts * Ex. In the Saora tribe in India there is a shady condition among young men and women who cry and jocularity at inappropriate times, experience memory spillage and feel like they are being bitten by ants. These young people are considered misfits and are not interested inpursuing the traditional subsistence of farming life. For this, they are under considerable stress due to social thrust from relatives and friends. To solve this problem, a marriage ceremony is carried out in which the disturbed person is married to the spirit. younker person becomes a shaman. * Anorexia/Bulimia in the coupled States\r\n* Fear of weight gain and distorted view of one’s body. This causes people to restrict their take in or binge eat/purge. One of the key contributing factors is the combination of weigh gain during puberty set against perceived social pressure to conform to culturally specific ideals of beauty * Historical hurt\r\n* American Indian/Alaska Native populations have long expe rienced a range of disparities in health. These peoples endure from a collective, psychological scar resulting from the experience of violence, culture loss, land loss, discrimination and eventual marginalization that resulted from European colonialism and conquest in the Americas. * Immigrant/Refugee Mental Health Syndromes\r\n* Many immigrants and refugee populations coming to the United States and other host countries from civil disasters and other traumatic situations experiences psychological consequences in appurtenance to the stress of acculturation itself. * Emotions and Culture\r\n* Lutz and the Ifaluk found that emotions are culturally constructed. Emotions are a daily workings phenomenon.\r\nChapter 5: The Moral Dimension: The Relationship of etiology to Morality in Cultural Beliefs and Practices Related to Health\r\n* Cross Cultural etiologies of illness can range from those that seem neutral, like pathogens or genetics, to those that don’t like sorcery or fami ly disharmony * In other words, there appear to be some causes for which no judgment can be make or blame assigned, and some that can be blamed on somebody or something, whether the person who is ill, or another person, or another social institution or group. Culture, as reflected in ethnomedical systems, involves socially call downd definitions of what is normal vs. not normal. * When a person experiences some abnormal phenomenon (illness) it could be thought of as: * deviate but morally ok not your intermission\r\n* Abnormal but not morally ok your fault or somebody’s fault. rouse result from stigma. * The moral connection to illness is very much related to several kinds of factors: * Cultural conceptions of the individual and the degree to which individuals are viewed as responsible for their condition and their behavior * Most western societies are typically viewed as individual-centric * The degree to which external forces are viewed as responsible for their conditio n and their behavior\r\n* In many cultures, what you do and what happens to you may not originate with you but with other forces. These forces could be attributed to one or more gods, to broader natural forces, to specific spirits, or to sorcery ad witchcraft. The moral source, so to speak, may in part be related to individuals but indirectly. * The kinds of social divisions that exist in a particular society and what those social divisions are held to mean †social class/social stratification, gender, race/ethnicity, religion and other divisions. * Refers to a moral source that is society itself the way in which society creates conditions that make some peole more vulnerable to disease than others or that forces some people into choices (with health consequences) that others do not have to make. * Physical Symbolism of the Disease\r\n* If the appearance of the disease looks like the embodiment of a culturally defined malevolence of some kind, people may react to it regardless o f whether or not the victim is initially held to be at fault. Alternatively, the appearance of the disease may be seem like evidence that the person must be at fault or is some way selected for punshement, triggereing a kind of after-the-fact blame. * All of these can lead to the stigmatisation of people with a particular illness or disease. * Stigma: the discrediting, social rejection or staining of types of people who are viewed as blameworthy in one way or another. It is the social construction of screw up identity for classes of people viewed as undesirable by some social standard. The exclusion and abuse caused by stigma may even be canonical by law.\r\n* Illness Behavior * Two kinds of sick roles: * A set of roles for people who are ill * A set of roles for the other people who interact with the sick person, whether as a healer or family member or even a classmate. * Illness behavior is produced or socially constructed within the framework of a culture. It involves an entir e production, in which many players act out their roles and in doing so, work together to produce a result that comes out as the way of a particular illness takes form, and the consequences of that, in a given society. An important result of this and other culturally shaped interactions is to reproduce the culture.\r\n'