Study Guide, Anth 2263
Week 6
Reading 1: Singer (2004)
Keywords:
Frankenberg’s making of a disease -
Frankenberg’s making individual of disease -
Frankenberg’s making social of disease -
Questions:
1. What assumptions are laid out at the beginning of the article that the author intends to argue
against?
2. What is the “medical gaze”?
3. What evidence is there to suggest that diseases are cultural constructions?
4. How is American biomedicine set apart from European biomedicine? What are your thoughts on
its interpretation?
5. Critical thinking question: Do you see elements of Canadian history/culture embedded in
Canadian biomedicine?
6. What does it mean to say that “doctors practice medicine, not social change”? (p. 14) What role
does medicalization have in this process?
7. What does the HIV/AIDS pandemic illustrate about the shifting social understanding of diseases?
8. Explain the term, “oppression illness”.
Reading 2: Lock and Nguyen (2018)
Keywords:
Sociotechnical assemblage - something that encompasses ongoing interactions among human
and non-human actors (see examples in text, e.g., railways, public healthcare).
Global North -
Global South -
Biosecurity industry -
Metrics - technologies of counting that form global knowledge of all kinds and perform much of
the work of standardization and commensurability that enable global programmes to operate
across different local contexts.
Pharmaceuticalization - when health problems and solutions are framed as conditions to be
managed through drugs.
Janus-face - possessing two different natures or characters, deceitful, two-faced or insincere.
Study Guide, Anth 2263
Questions:
1. What is globalization? What are some impacts of the “globalization of biomedicine” on
populations around the world?
2. What evidence is there for shifts from international (preventative health care for the masses), to
global (individualized) clinical care? (p. 295)
3. What are “global health metrics” and what impact have they had?
4. Critical thinking question: Upon reviewing the two examples of cancer treatment (p. 297-300),
what are some positive and negative impacts of global health care?
5. Explain your understanding of the two-faced (capitalist/philanthropist) nature of global the
pharmaceutical industry (p. 301-303).
6. What is the paradox of medical humanitarianism? (p. 303)
7. How are viruses techno-phenomena? (p. 306) What is “preparedness” within the context of
global health? (p. 307)
8. Describe how visions of future health events (e.g., epidemics/pandemics) have been used to
govern present-day populations (p. 307-308).
9. Reflection question: How prepared do you feel our world governments and institutions were for
the COVID-19 pandemic?
Reading 3: Manderson and Levine (2020)
Keywords:
Epidemic - a disease affecting many persons at the same time and spreading from person to
person in a locality where the disease is not permanently widespread.
Pandemic - a disease affecting many persons that is widespread throughout an entire country,
continent, or the world.
Questions:
1. Describe the different ways anthropologists have helped people to understand the impact of
epidemics and pandemics.
2. What do the authors mean by “embodied knowledge”? (p. 2, 4th paragraph)
3. How are privilege and inequality in society visible in the ongoing responses to the COVID-19
pandemic?
