Chapter 7 Disease, Illness, and Healing
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. Ethnomedicine refers to __________.
A) the study of cross-cultural health systems
B) the globalization of Western biomedicine
C) the universal use of medicines to treat illness
D) ways of curing disease rather than preventing it
2. A prominent value in Japan about the body, called gotai, refers to __________.
A) the importance of keeping the body whole even after death
B) the dominance of the mind over the body
C) an emphasis on blood as the key element of bodily health
D) the idea that men and women have distinctly different organ systems and their diseases have to be treated
differently
3. __________ is a culture-specific syndrome in Spain and Portugal and is common among Latino people in the
United States; it is associated with a stressful incident or situation.
A) Hikikomori
B) Susto
C) Koro
D) Suffering from water
4. An increasingly common culture-specific syndrome among Japanese male adolescents is __________.
A) koro
B) kula
C) hikikomori
D) susto
5. Retired Husband Syndrome and awas are examples of __________.
A) diseases of contact
B) culture-specific syndromes
C) globalized diseases
D) diseases of development
6. The term “stigma” refers to negative __________ consequences of a disease or illness.
A) economic
B) spiritual
C) physiological
D) social
7. People in northern Thailand hung wooden penises on their houses in order to __________.
A) prevent a malaria epidemic
B) counteract a culture-specific syndrome that involves male impotence
C) prevent an attack of ghosts who kill men
D) promote fertility in the women of the region
8. The Maya of Guatemala believe awas can be caused when a pregnant woman is disturbed. What concept relates
to this belief?
A) structural suffering
B) stigma
C) ethno-etiology
D) somatization
9. In northern Thailand, many people believe that sudden death of men is caused by __________.
A) koro
B) nagging of their wives
C) stress related to poverty
D) attack of widow ghosts
10. The Ju/wasi of the Kalahari desert have a healing system that is __________.
A) dominated by women specialists
B) humoral-based
C) community-based
D) focused on the shaman-client relationship
11. Humoral healing systems are based on __________.
A) the idea that human emotions have a direct relationship to health
B) the effect of weather and seasonal change on health
C) a philosophy that seeks balance among various bodily fluids and forces
D) a combination of Western biomedicine and the use of local herbs and minerals
12. Medicinal chewing of coca leaves is __________.
A) popularly used to stop babies from crying
B) commonly used by people in the Himalayas for fighting the cold
C) important in Andean rituals and health practices
D) more common among women than men
13. Which of the following is an example of an illness and not a disease as the terms are defined in the text?
A) polio
B) diabetes
C) tuberculosis
D) susto
14. Among the Tsimané people of Bolivia, the health status of children is strongly related to __________.
A) their gender: boys are healthier than girls
B) the mother’s traditional knowledge of healing plants
C) whether the mother received formal education
D) whether the mother works outside the home
15. The ecological/epidemiological approach in medical anthropology involves __________.
A) study of how the natural environment interacts with culture to cause disease
B) study of the interaction among politics, religion, and health
C) a focus on how genetics influences death and disease
D) attention to the symbols that different cultures use to represent natural causes of death
16. __________ is a disease contracted from human waste used as fertilizer in rice fields.
A) Hookworm
B) Malaria
C) Tuberculosis
D) Measles
17. The role of European diseases in the depopulation of the New World was __________.
A) relatively unimportant compared with other changes caused by European contact
B) significant, as smallpox and other diseases caused widespread death
C) far less important than the effect of New World diseases on the colonizers
D) of unknown dimensions since we have absolutely no data
18. SARS is an example of __________.
A) a new infectious disease
B) a culture-specific syndrome
C) medical pluralism
D) the spread of a disease from Asia to the West through trade
19. An example of the interpretivist approach in medical anthropology is __________.
A) assessment of the impact of disease during colonial contact
B) studying how hookworm is related to wet rice cultivation in Asia
C) showing how a song sung by a shaman might help a woman through a difficult birth
D) revealing the role poverty plays in disease
20. Treating the effects of poverty on health with pills is referred to as __________.
A) cultural constructionism
B) medicalization
C) biological determinism
D) medical pluralism
21. Davis-Floyd’s research on medical school training applies what term to the emphasis placed on remembering
facts rather than on critical thinking?
A) hazing
B) cognitive retrogression
C) patient objectification
D) dehumanization
22. The phrase “diseases of development” refers to health problems __________.
A) related to adolescence as a stressful phase of human development
B) caused by economic development activities such as dam construction
C) that international aid agencies seek to prevent or alleviate
D) found mainly in urban areas
23. An increasing prevalence of the disease __________ is attributed to the construction of dams and irrigation
systems in many parts of the world.
A) arthritis
B) measles
C) schistosomiasis
D) influenza
24. The term “medical pluralism” refers to the __________.
A) presence of many illnesses in one community
B) presence of multiple health systems within a society
C) practice, in industrial countries, of a patient consulting several physicians before deciding what to do
D) growing tendency for Western medical students to overspecialize
25. The area within medical anthropology that seeks to make its knowledge useful to medical practitioners working
in health-care delivery is __________.
A) applied medical anthropology
B) critical medical anthropology
C) ethnomedicine
D) symbolic/interpretivist anthropology
26. Medical anthropologists study healing practices only in non-Western cultures.
27. In Japan, gotai results in the belief that a person’s body should never be cut into.
28. All cultures draw a distinction between mental and purely physical health problems.
29. Ethno-etiology refers to culture-specific explanations for health problems and suffering.
30. Forced migration that causes mental and physical stress is an example of structural suffering.
31. One factor that may explain the success of placebos is the act of the prescription itself.
32. Critical medical anthropologists draw attention to the role of phytotherapy in the depersonalization of health
care.
33. According to critical medical anthropologists, one significant feature of the training of Western biomedical
healers is called cognitive retrogression.
34. Childhood obesity in high-income countries is an example of a disease of development.
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35. Robert Trotter’s work in discovering the role of lead poisoning in some traditional medicines used by Mexican
Americans is an example of critical medical anthropology.
ESSAY
36. Discuss the disease/illness dichotomy and provide examples of a disease and an illness.
37. Explain the concept of a culture-specific syndrome and discuss one example of a culture-specific syndrome
including attention to symptoms, social distribution, and possible cause(s).
38. What is structural suffering, and what is an ethnographic example of it?
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39. Describe two differences and two similarities between shamanic healers and Western biomedical healers.
40. Define and give an example of the interpretivist approach in medical anthropology.
41. Define the term “medicalization.” How does it demonstrate the critical medical anthropology approach?
42. Summarize two of the critiques of Western biomedicine made by critical medical anthropologists.
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43. Describe one of the ways globalization is changing health, illness, and healing using an example from the text.
44. What is a “disease of development”? Provide an example and explain its specific cause.
45. Define the goal of applied medical anthropology and illustrate its relevance to an example from the text.