APY2602 Assignment 2 (Comprehensive Response) Semester 2 DUE September 2025

APY2602
Assignment 2: Comprehensive Response
Semester 2
Due September 2025

, APY2602

Assignment 2: Comprehensive Response

Semester 2

DUE September 2025




Contents

Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... 2

1. Introduction: The Critical Lens of Medical Anthropology ....................................................................... 2

2. Questioning the Universal Value and Significance of Biomedicine ....................................................... 3

2.1. Biomedicine as an Ethnomedicine .................................................................................................. 3

2.2. Critique of Biomedical Reductionism and Dualism ......................................................................... 3

2.3. Power Dynamics and Structural Violence within Biomedicine ....................................................... 4

3. Relevance of Anthropology of Health in Western Societies .................................................................. 5

3.1. Cultural Construction of Health and Illness in Western Contexts ................................................... 5

3.2. Medical Pluralism and Health-Seeking Behaviors .......................................................................... 5

3.3. Understanding Healthcare Systems as Social Systems................................................................. 6

3.4. The Patient Experience and Illness Narratives ............................................................................... 6

4. Relevance of Anthropology of Health in Indigenous Societies.............................................................. 7

4.1. Holistic Understandings of Health and Healing .............................................................................. 7

4.2. Ethnomedical Systems and Traditional Healing Practices ............................................................. 7

4.3. Challenges of Integration and Cultural Sensitivity .......................................................................... 8

4.4. Decolonizing Health and Addressing Health Disparities ................................................................ 8

5. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................... 10

6. References .............................................................................................................................................. 11