A Reflection on what we have looked at
Before taking this course in medical anthropology I looked at medicine as strictly a science. Even though I have had many personal experiences in the field of medicine with my brother I never really considered the cultural aspect of it. Now stepping back I see it much clearer, because as a society we get so intrenched in our way of life that we forget that not everyone lives like we do. We take for granted all the luxuries that we have in our everyday lives that other countries could only dream of. Not to say that we don't still have our problems and we have plenty, but as a culture we are far more fortunate than we realize. Just look at the chart about that shows average life expectancy for several countries back in 2009 we are sitting up towards the top of the list. Another example is how much each person is worth, for that look at the chart to the left for 2008. Again we are at the top, so for all our daily striffs that we complain about as a culture we actually have it very good. To me though as far as medical anthropology goes I still find the biological approach the most helpful, this is because I plan on going into the medical field. But I also feel that the experiential approach is very important as well because as health professionals we need to treat the patient as well as the disease. The thing that took me by suprise and challenged my perception the most was the story about Nacerima and how outsiders can look at things completely different than you do. Another movie that I think would be applicable to this course would be the movie GATACA because it challenges ideas and culture. I think that medical anthropology is an interesting field and I like how it challenged my prespective of the medical field. If I were to try and explain medical anthropology to someone that knew nothing about the field I would have to describe it as a cross between a medical ethics class, sociology, and a little physcology mixed in too. In conclusion I
enjoyed studying medical anthropolgy and had fun sharing some of my families journey with the condition of hypoplastic left heart syndrome. I hope you enjoyed reading about it and that you have a better understanding of a little known condition that has come a long way in just a short time.
enjoyed studying medical anthropolgy and had fun sharing some of my families journey with the condition of hypoplastic left heart syndrome. I hope you enjoyed reading about it and that you have a better understanding of a little known condition that has come a long way in just a short time.
Bibliography
image: "How Long Will I Live?" http://www.disabled-world.com/calculators-charts/life-expectancy-statistics.php accessed August 15, 2013
image:"How do you build a Global Strategy" http://www.global-strategy.net/how-do-you-build-a-global-strategy/ accessed August 15, 2013
"Gataca Trailer" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZppWok6SX88 accessed August 15, 2013
"My Top 10 Worst/Best things about having HLHS" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5tb8bk2aZc accessed August 16, 2013
image: "How Long Will I Live?" http://www.disabled-world.com/calculators-charts/life-expectancy-statistics.php accessed August 15, 2013
image:"How do you build a Global Strategy" http://www.global-strategy.net/how-do-you-build-a-global-strategy/ accessed August 15, 2013
"Gataca Trailer" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZppWok6SX88 accessed August 15, 2013
"My Top 10 Worst/Best things about having HLHS" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5tb8bk2aZc accessed August 16, 2013