Culture, Health and Society
Program: Post RN BSN
Unit 1: Health and Illness: A Socio-cultural
Prospective
Presented by: Mrs. Zahida Saboor
1
Objectives
At the end of the unit learners will be able to:
•Explain the concept of culture
•Discuss the importance of socio cultural anthropology and its relation to health
•Explain the concept of society at micro and macro levels
•Describe the concepts of health, illness and disease, society, community, culture,
•Discuss health and disease as a product of social behavior
•Differentiate between the different healing systems and practitioners
•Explore religious beliefs and practices related to prevention and healing in illness
•Identify issues of integration of traditional healing practices and modern medicine
•Explore beliefs and practices of a client regarding their activities of daily living in
different cultures
Describe basic principles of Eastern and Western medicine.
Culture
Tyler's definition of culture:
Complex whole which includes knowledge, belief,
arts, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities
and habits acquired by man as a member of society.
Lassiter’s definition of culture:
A shared and negotiated system of meaning informed
by knowledge that people learn and put into practice
by interpreting experience and generating behavior.
Cont…
Culture is Learned
Cultural learning is unique to humans.
Cultural learning is the accumulation of knowledge
about experiences and information not perceived directly
by the organism, but transmitted to it through symbols.
Culture is learned through both direct instruction and
observation (both conscious and unconscious).
cont….
Culture is Symbolic
The human ability to use symbols on the basis of culture
A symbol is anything that is used to represent any other
thing, when the relationship between the two is arbitrary
(e.g., a flag).
Only humans have elaborated cultural abilities – to
learn, to communicate, to store, to process, and to use
symbols.
cont…
Culture is Shared
Culture is located and transmitted in groups.
The social transmission of culture tends to unify people
by providing us with a common experience.
The commonalty of experience in turn tends to generate
a common understanding of future events.
Culture is All-Encompassing
The anthropological concept of culture is a model that
includes all aspects of human group behavior.
Everyone is cultured, not just wealthy people with an elite
education.
cont…
Culture is Integrated
A culture is a system in which changes in one aspect will
likely generate changes in other aspects.
Core values are sets of ideas, attitudes, and beliefs that are
basic in that they provide an organizational logic for the
rest of the culture.
Ideal culture
Normative descriptions of a culture given by its natives
Real culture
actual behavior as observed by an anthropologist.
Culture is Adaptive
Adaptation-the way of living relate to their environment so they can
survive and reproduce.
Not all cultural behaviors are adaptive
Culture is Dynamic
They are ever-changing, non-static, referred to as cultural evolution.
Many cultures today are very different from what they were years
ago.
Culture change can come from outside (domination of other culture)
or inside (women entering work force).
Culture Change by invention and diffusion
Invention (internal)-new thing or idea.
Diffusion (external)-spreading of cultural elements from one
culture to another.
Anthropology
The word anthropology itself tells the basic story--from
the Greek anthropos ("human") and logia ("study“)
It is the study of humankind, from its beginnings
millions of years ago to the present day.
Many disciplines that study our species, Homo sapiens,
only anthropology seeks to understand the whole
panorama in geographic space and evolutionary time of
human existence.
Social Anthropology
Social Anthropology is the comparative study of human
conduct and thought in their social context.
Various Sub-disciplines of
Anthropology
1. Social and Cultural Anthropology
2. Physical Anthropology
3. Psychological Anthropology
4. Economic Anthropology
5. Visual Anthropology
6. Applied Anthropology
7. Linguistic Anthropology
8. Medical Anthropology
9. Nutrition Anthropology
10. Molecular Anthropology
Society
A system of social interaction that includes culture
and social organization.
Any organized group of people joined together
because of work, interests, etc. in common a medical
society.
The aggregate of people living together in a more or
less ordered community.
Micro-level
Meso-level
Macro-level
MICROCULTURE
• A culture shared by a small group of people who share commonalities.
• Includes different types of groups that includes be classified by
age,class ,geographic region,sexualpreference,disability,ethnicity,
race size,even occupation etc.
• Examples minorities,transgender, LGBT.
• MACROCULTURE:
culture that all humans share in a general way cross local boundries
and may exist among groups nationaly,or internationally .
Examples:Nations, religious groups ethnic.
MESOCULTURE:
Meso level anylasis involves the study of groups,communities,and
institution for example organisations,poltical parties.
HEALTH
”Health is a state of complete psychical, mental, social and
spiritual well being and not merely the absence of disease or
infirmity.”WHO recently added, the ability to lead a socially and
economically productive life
DISEASE
Is an abnormality of the body or mind that causes discomfort,
dysfunction, distress or death to the person afflicted or those in
contact with person.
WELLNESS
Is generally used to mean a healthy balance of a mind, body and
soul that results an over all feelings of wellbeing.
Community
WHO defines community as a social group determined
by geographical boundaries and/or common values and
interests. Its members know and interact with each other.
it functions within a particular social structure and
exhibits and creates certain norms, values and social
institutions.
Illness
It is an abnormal highly personal and subjective
feeling in which individual physical, emotional ,
intellectual ,social, developmental or spiritual function is
thought to be diminished or impaired.
Traditional medicine is the sum total of the knowledge,
skills, and practices based on the theories, beliefs, and
experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether
explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health as
well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement
or treatment of physical and mental illness
Traditional healing Practices
Modern Medicine
The science and art of diagnosing and treating disease
or injury and maintaining health.
The branch of this science encompassing treatment by
drugs, diet, exercise, and other nonsurgical means.
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Alternative
&
Complementary Medicines
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1. Quantum Touch
Founded by Richard Gordon. The energy level is
amplified through proper breathing and visualization of
energy flow in the body.
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EFT
EFT, or Emotional Freedom Techniques is one of the
easiest methods to learn. It is all about fingers-tapping on
the acupuncture meridians in the body combined with
positive affirmation.
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Reiki
Founded by Mikao Usui, the word Reiki is made of two
Japanese words – Rei which means “God’s Wisdom or the
Higher Power” and Ki which is “life force energy”. Thus,
Reiki means “spiritually guided life force energy.” The
method of Reiki involves to stimulate the integration of
mind/body/spirit to enhance the natural healing
mechanism.
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Healing Touch
Healing Touch, also known as Therapeutic Touch, is a
biofield (magnetic field around the body) therapy that is
an energy-based approach to health and healing. Its uses
the gift of touch to influence the human energy system,
specifically the energy field that surrounds the body, and
the energy centers that control the flow from the energy
field to the physical body.
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cont….
Restorative Touch
The Wonder Method
Theta Healing
Acupuncture/Acupressure
Aroma therapy:
Crystal healing
Music therapy
Art therapy
Salt therapy
Meditation & Relaxation
Nature Therapy
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Principles of Eastern and Western
Medicine
. Eastern medicine is a broad range of medicine practices
developed in China many years ago. Eastern and Western
medicine both work towards treating various diseases
using different methods and theories.
Eastern medicine focuses on treating diseases through
more natural remedies, whereas Western medicine deals
with more synthetic drugs.
Eastern medicine to have little or no side effects,
differing from Western medicine which is known to cause
several different side effects.
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The basic fundamental principles in Eastern medicine are
.
Traditional Chinese Medicine practices that include herbs,
massages, diets, and exercise therapy.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, symptoms of illness are grouped
differently upon these different principles. The first principle is the
basis that all creation has two opposite aspects, Yin and Yang. Yin
and Yang are opposites in constant motion creating a balance in the
healthy body. Disease results when either Yin or Yang exceeds the
other. Symptoms of illness such as fever, swelling, or convulsions
need to be healed with Traditional Chinese herbs to relax and calm
the Soule.
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.
Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners are trained to
view the body as one unified system such as the body,
mind, and spirit working as one. Western medicine
focuses on the area of the disease and separates the body
by its different functions.
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.
Another basic principle of Eastern medicine deals with the
‘Exterior and Interior’. Exterior conditions consist of the
flu, viruses, rashes, or aching muscles. Interior conditions
are all those diseases that are not exterior such as anything
affecting the internal organs.
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The Five Element Theory
This
. theory plays a big part in the Chinese belief that
humans physically and mentally are intertwined with
nature. Westerners on the other hand believe that the body
and the mind are two completely different elements. The
Five elements that interconnect human nature with the
universe are wood, fire, earth, metal, and water.
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Each element is associated with a different season and a different
body part.
.
The wood element represents spring, as well as the liver and the
gall bladder.
Fire represents early summer as well as the heart and small
intestines.
Earth corresponds to late summer and deals with the stomach and
the spleen.
Metal associates with autumn and responds to the lungs and large
intestines.
Water is associated with winter and deals with the kidneys and the
bladder. This theory serves as a tool used by Eastern medicine to
diagnose and treat illness.
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References
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disease
.
2. Merrian-webster Dictionary 2009
3. Hofstede, G. (1997). Cultures and Organizations
4. Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2016. Journal of the
Islamic Medical Association (IMA) Vol. 30, Pages 44-45 (1998)
5. Services, Queensland Health Multicultural. Health Care Providers' Handbook
on Hindu Patients - Section 2 Hindu Beliefs Affecting Health Care.
6. Illness and healing by My Jewish Learning staff.
7. Mc Laughlin, L., & Braun, K. (1998). „Asian and Pacific Islander cultural
values: Considerations for health care decision-making.“ Health and Social
Work, 23 (2), 116-126
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