Evolution of medical anthropology essay

Medical anthropology is a science that tries to study the aspects of a bicultural adaptation, health care systems and human health and disease. It gives humans a perspective of ecological and multidimensional articulation. It is one of the developed sectors of applied anthropology and anthropology itself. It is a subfield of cultural and social anthropology which examines ways in which culture and societies are in the formation around or are under the influence of health, health care and other related issues.
The concept of folk or popular medicine has been a familiar ground to both anthropologists and doctors. Doctors and medical anthropologists used the terms to describe resources, other than the help of health professionals. The term was also in use descriptions of the health practices used by aborigines in different spheres of the world; with particular emphasis being placed on their ethnobotanical know how. The knowledge is a fundamental part for isolating pharmacological principles and alkaloids. Studying the rituals surrounding modern therapies served as a challenge to western categories, as well as the relationship between science and religion. Doctors were not in pursuit to turn popular medicine into an anthropological theory; rather they wanted to construct a scientifically based concept which could be used to establish the cultural parameters of biomedicine.
The concept of popular medicine was taken up by anthropologists in the twentieth century. That was to form boundaries between medicine, magical practices and religion and to try and explore the role and the significance of healers and their self-medicating practices. Popular medicine was a particular cultural feature of some groups of humans that was distinct from the universal practices of biomedicine
Throughout history, human beings have dined on human flesh. Whether it was part of the war to gain the enemy’s strength or as a means to terrify opponents, cannibalism goes back a long way. There have been those lone individuals who find eating people satisfying. They engage in it because they enjoy it; they have psychopathic personalities, and they are extremely lonely. Richard Trenton was a serial killer; he fed on his victims’ blood because he believed aliens were turning his blood to powder. He had to replenish it. Richard was paranoid. Most cannibals are not psychotic. They know very well what they are engaging in doing. For an individual who is resentful and, it fills a void. Most cannibals are loners. They do not have any friends; they are bitter about it. Killing a victim ensures that the offender is not alone. The victims are with him at all times. It helps the cannibal retain a sense of control over his life.

Works Cited

Book
Brown, Peter J.” Understanding Medical Anthropology”. Mountain View, Calif.: Mayfield Pub., 1998. Print.