Question 1

The chapter opens with the story of the author's interest in American football and the discovery of serious post-career injuries. How were these injuries first discovered? Discuss the role of culture in this specific instance of medicine as a system.

Accepted Answer

Students should begin with a synopsis of the issue, how the National Football League essentially hushed up this problem for a very long time until a doctor discovered the true nature of the problem. Students should be able to demonstrate the role of culture in this case, how culture intersects with medicine to tamp down concerns about a pastime, and how cultural values around medical care can miss important details altogether.

Question 2

Anthropologists believe that culture plays an underlying role in ways that health is perceived, experienced, and treated. Using the example of the Maya of Yucatán, identify two specific aspects of the birth process and explain how these reflect local cultural values and community conditions.

Accepted Answer

Students should answer that among the Maya, women give birth surrounded by women relatives and with their husbands helping them through the process. These women are typically in their own homes, in hammocks, and give birth without the use of painkillers. As the author explains, showing strength, willingness, and tolerance to survive life's hardships are admired cultural values, and women in childbirth demonstrate this through their strength. Also, relatives share the collective process of labor.

Question 3

Discuss how "traditional" Chinese medicine (TCM) has "gone global." What are two underlying beliefs that shape this approach to health care despite the range of areas where TCM is practiced? What is qi, and what does this type of treatment attempt to achieve? How and when did Chinese medical practices become more widespread in North America and Europe, and which are most common in California?

Accepted Answer

Students should state that Chinese medical philosophies stress harmony between heaven and Earth, and that an individual's qi must be in balance. They should state that balance is restored through herbs, acupuncture, tuina (massage), moxibustion, and acupressure. They should note that per Mei Zhan, in the 1980s, Chinese medicine became more popular outside China through migration and the electronic media, and it became more accepted in the biomedical environment. Acupuncture and herbal medicine have become popular in California.

Question 4

Anthropologist Shirley Lindenbaum conducted fieldwork in Papua New Guinea and uncovered the true cause of a fatal disease, kuru. What did Lindenbaum conclude was the cause of this disease?

Accepted Answer

A)   poor hygiene practices that gave rise to a unique type of food poisoning
B)   the reappearance of a rare genetic anomaly that was first brought to the area by Europeans
C)   the funeral rituals used by the population she studied
D)   the rejection of Western medicine by the local chiefs of the population

Question 5

When studying the health care provided at Alpha Hospital in New York City, anthropologist Khiara Bridges documented health-care professionals referring to black women as "primitive" and stating that black women were better able to withstand pain than white women. Where did these attitudes stem from?

Accepted Answer

A)   an oral tradition within the medical profession featuring stories and folklore about black women's bodies
B)   the formal education health-care professionals received
C)   conflicts between physicians of color and white patients
D)   information that was the result of Medicaid policies and directives

Question 6

Paul Farmer's work in Haiti using anthropological tools led him to recognize that these same tools could also do what?

Accepted Answer

A)   be a limitation for doctors working in the remote rural regions of a country
B)   be a useful way to convince local governments to provide better medical care
C)   help doctors think about health in the broadest possible sense
D)   be used to cure diseases in the United States

Question 7

Paul Farmer found rural Haitian residents experiencing very high rates of malnutrition, dysentery, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS. Many of these residents were water refugees due to the construction of a hydroelectric dam that had flooded their valley. This problem underlines the difficulty of providing adequate health care in the face of ________.

Accepted Answer

A)   globalization
B)   socioeconomic inequality
C)   a highly corrupt government
D)   rural development projects

Question 8

Anne Fadiman, author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, studied the Hmong immigrant population in the United States. What does her work suggest is one of the biggest challenges faced by this population?

Accepted Answer

A)   a lack of English language knowledge
B)   a shortage of Hmong physicians available to them in U.S. hospitals
C)   the absence of housing that permits extended families to live together under one roof
D)   a lack of monetary resources to pay for medical care

Question 9

The widespread prevalence of HIV/AIDS across the globe has evoked a varied response in health-care approaches to the disease. In some countries, such as Thailand, the recognition and acceptance that HIV/AIDS occurs among all segments of a population has led to a very successful program to stop the spread. In other countries, a mixture of denial that HIV/AIDS is a problem for all segments of the population as well as deeply internalized beliefs about homosexuality has resulted in disastrous treatment plans that have actually seen the instances of the disease increase. As a medical anthropologist, how might you approach the problem if you were attempting to understand the presence of HIV/AIDS in a country where attitudes toward homosexuality were both strongly negative and deeply internalized to the extent that people were reluctant to talk about it and about sexuality?

Accepted Answer

The answer of The widespread prevalence of HIV/AIDS across the...

Question 10

Why is the case of Lia Lee significant for medical anthropologists?

Accepted Answer

A)   Her parents were eventually able to bridge the gap between their own medical prognosis and that of Lia's doctors.
B)   Her doctors were ultimately able to successfully construct her parents' illness narrative.
C)   The clash between the family's beliefs and those of the physicians was a clear instance of medical pluralism.
D)   The entire event provided a window into the application of non-Western medicine that is difficult to document in the field.

Question 11

In the view of "technocratic birth," which of the following is true?

Accepted Answer

A)   Women are viewed as strong and capable actors in the birth process.
B)   Expectant mothers are attended by midwives and family members.
C)   Fathers are expected to hold the mothers while encouraging them.
D)   Mothers can receive epidural injections to manage their pain.

Question 12

Chinese medicine conceptualizes qi as a type of energy found in all living things, something that must be in balance to maintain good health. According to this view, what are two things mentioned in the text that must remain in balance?

Accepted Answer

A)   husband and wife
B)   heaven and Earth
C)   past and present
D)   the body and Earth

Question 13

The complete collection of microorganisms in the body's ecosystem is referred to as what?

Accepted Answer

A)   microsystem
B)   human ecosystem
C)   microbiome
D)   biodome

Question 14

Medical anthropology takes a holistic approach to health. What else in addition to meaning and power does this approach include?

Accepted Answer

A)   promoting ethnopharmacology
B)   promoting biomedicine
C)   epidemiology
D)   local knowledge

Question 15

The core values of good health in the United States-personal responsibility, hard work, and clean living-shape how Americans approach functional health. Where do these values fit in respect to the World Health Organization's definition of health?

Accepted Answer

A)   They are a key part of the definition.
B)   They do not address the problem of unequal access to health care.
C)   They result in complete physical, mental, and social well-being.
D)   They are not part of the definition.

Question 16

Football, a popular sport in the United States, has been linked to brain injuries. Why might anthropologists be interested in the study of brain injuries in football players?

Accepted Answer

A)   to assist in documenting a major health scandal
B)   to better understand the relationship between health and culture
C)   to advance the field of sports medicine
D)   to uncover hidden problems with football

Question 17

The dominant idea of health care in the United States is doctors in white coats, hospitals, and advanced technology. What have medical anthropologists found to be the case in regard to this concept in the rest of the world?

Accepted Answer

A)   It is the most common point of access for people worldwide.
B)   It is the least common point of access for most people worldwide.
C)   It is the least frequently contested aspect of health care worldwide.
D)   It is the most frequently contested aspect of health-care delivery worldwide.

Question 18

What is one important part of medical treatment that the biomedical model overlooks?

Accepted Answer

A)   the scientific means to diagnose a disease
B)   social experiences as a component of disease
C)   pharmacology as a means of understanding diseases
D)   recognizing that biology plays a crucial role in disease

Question 19

What is biomedicine, and how do the practitioners view and treat diseases? Discuss two criticisms that anthropologists have about the European biases in the model.

Accepted Answer

The answer of What is biomedicine, and how do the...

Question 20

What did Anne Fadiman's research among Hmong refugees in California contribute to anthropological knowledge of the conflicts that can arise between Western and non-Western approaches to health care and treatment? Summarize Lia Lee's health condition, including how her parents' understanding of qaug dab peg differed from physicians' understanding of her condition. What were the experiences of this child and her family as a result of cross-cultural misunderstandings?

Accepted Answer

The answer of What did Anne Fadiman's research among Hmong...

Exam 16: Health, Illness, and the Body