Term
| Explain the "Three Bodies Approach" |
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Definition
This is a framework for looking at disease, therapy, and social conceptions of medicine. The three approaches are:
a) The individual as embodied self
b) The Social Body
c) The Body-Politic |
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Term
| What is meant by "The individual as embodied self"? |
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Definition
| Different societies perceive the body as an entity in different ways, often related to degrees of individualism and collectivism espoused by that culture. Western culture is very individualistic, focused on the body as individual entity and locates disease in biomedical aspects of the body. Cultures that value and conceive of the individual self less often place disease more in social relationships. |
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Term
| What is meant by, "The Social Body"? |
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Definition
| The body is used as a metaphor within a given culture or society. It has widely understood cultural meanings (ex: "right hand of god" "head of state"). |
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Term
| What is meant by "The Body Politic"? |
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Definition
| This is the process by which, or concept of the body's place in social/political control. The regulation of bodies by the government, for political means, legal conceptions of deviance and disease, etc. are all integral to the body politic. |
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Term
| Who is De La Mettrie and how is his work related to the "Three Bodies Approach"? |
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Definition
| In his text "Man, the Machine" he argues that humans are no more than complex machines, which constitutes out and out biological reductionism, and is one example of a conception of the individual as embodied self. |
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Term
| What are the basic assumptions of the Zinacantan health system? |
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Definition
| Every individual has a soul placed in them as an Embryo and a heart with thirteen parts. The heart can be damaged, but the soul is indestructible. Maladies are conceptualized as damage to (loss of) parts of the heart. Death is associated with the soul leaving the body. |
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Term
| Describe the reproductive beliefs of the Akwe Shavante. |
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Definition
| They place high value on having many children, and do not conceive of the mother as havign an active role in pregnancy. Fathers impregnate women through multiple sexual encounters, not single encounters. |
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Term
| In what region of Africa do the Safwa live? |
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Definition
Eastern Africa.
Southern Highlands of Tanzania |
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Term
| What are the two types of communal groups in Safwa society? |
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Definition
| The Compound and the Community |
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Term
| Describe the property owned by a compound and its general organization. |
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Definition
| A compound contains a group of people (a man, his wives, and his descendants), with multiple houses for these people. Compounds own land and livestock. |
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Term
| Describe the property owned by a community and its general organization. |
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Definition
| A community consists of a a group of compounds in close proximity. The community has a headman, and owns common land but NOT livestock |
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Term
| What are the two non-communal group types in Safwa societies? |
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Definition
| Patrilineage groups and tribes |
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Term
| How is a tribe defined among the Safwa? |
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Definition
| it consists of a number of communities linked together because their headmen have patrilineal links to one another |
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Term
| What Safwa social unit is smaller than a compound? |
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Definition
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Term
| What is unique about houses compared to other Safwa social organization structures? |
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Definition
| Houses are matrilineal rather than patrilineal. |
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Term
| What are the two types of relationships in Safwa society which are linked to different disease/malady etiologies? |
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Definition
| Transactional (Marriage relationships) are associated with sorcery, and Incorperative (Kin based) are associated with witchcraft. |
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Term
| Describe the concept of Brideservice among the Safwa. |
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Definition
| A man is expected to do service to his future in-laws in order to reciprocate the giving of the daughter in marriage. Such services include working the father-in-law's fields or building the mother-in-law a house. |
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Term
| Why are in-law relationships described as transactional? |
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Definition
a) people become in laws through a transactional process of selling a bride for property (livestock) and labor (brideservice).
b) after marriage, in laws are expected to provide for each other when need arises in a reciprocal way. (ex: one has no food one year, the other provides it, next year the situation is reversed). relationships between in-laws are always idealized as reciprocal relationships. |
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Term
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Definition
| It is a Safwa term that describes maladies ranging from a stomachache to death. |
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Term
| How is "life force" conceptualized by the Safwa? |
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Definition
It as a power or force of existence, likened to heat in humans. It is contained in male semen and female vaginal fluids that are said to create the fetus, and in the vaginal contractions that happen during birth.
When life force leaves the body, death occurs. |
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Term
| What is the relationship between Empongo and Life Force? |
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Definition
| Empongo is caused by a lack of life force. Sicknesses are caused by it's weakening, while death is caused by it's disappearance entirely. |
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Term
| What is the relationship between disease and social deviance according to Safwa thought? |
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Definition
| Proper social order promotes health. So healthy people have good social relationships. Social deviance leads to empongo of different levels, and empongo can be cured by removing or reversing the deviant behavior. |
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Term
| On what occasions to the Safwa perform ancestor rites? |
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Definition
a) when an adult dies: funerary rites immediately after, and ancestor ceremony at the first harvest after death.
b) Illness ceremonies held for cases of empongo.
c)Periodic ceremonies, especially if there are social tensions, unsettled disagreements, or if illness ceremonies have not been successful at curing Empongo. |
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Term
| Where are ancestor rites performed? |
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Definition
| At the grave of an ancestor |
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Term
| What happens during an ancestor rite? |
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Definition
a) two holes are dug at the head of the grave
b) Offerings of food and animal sacrifices are placed around these holes
c) a feast occurs where the living share food with the dead |
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Term
| What is the position of ancestors, in terms of a hierarchy of beings in Safwa society. |
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Definition
| Ancestors are considered to be intermediaries between humans and gods. |
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Term
| What activities characterize a "spoiled" household according to the Safwa? |
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Definition
| Gossip, lack of community, and lack of cooperation |
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Term
| What are the moral implications of disease and death in Safwa thought? |
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Definition
| Empongo is always caused by human action, so someone must have erred if disease and/or death occur. |
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Term
| Which comes first in Safwa medical ideology: social disorder or disease? |
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Definition
In theory, social disorder precedes disease.
In practice, the appearance of disease produces a search for social disorder. |
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Term
| When would a diviner be consulted by the Safwa? |
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Definition
| In the case of sudden illness, long dragging illness, severely incapacitating illnesses, and when there is no evidence that ancestors have shown the cause of Empongo through dreams. Also in other areas of misfortune, such as livestock disease or death, or crop failure. |
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Term
| Do the Safwa perform autopsies? |
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Definition
| They do, or they used to before British colonization. The British reduced or put a stop to this practice. |
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Term
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Definition
| Itonga can be loosely translated as "witchcraft" however it only refers to intentional activities, and can be either good or bad. Itonga refers in general to the power to do things without being noticed. |
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Term
| How can sorcery and itonga be differentiated from one another? |
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Definition
| itonga is used against one's kin, while sorcery is used against those who are not kin. |
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Term
| Who Wrote "Medicine, Magic, and Religions" |
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Definition
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Term
| What were WHR Rivers' three major disease categories? |
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Definition
a) Human Agency
b) Supernatural Beings
c) "Natural" Diseases |
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Term
| Which of his three categories of disease did WHR Rivers associate with western bio-medicine? |
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Definition
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Term
| Which of his three categories of disease did WHR Rivers associate with "primitive" medicine? |
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Definition
| Human Agency and Supernatural Beings |
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Term
| True or False: WHR Rivers would categorize "Primitive" medical systems as being irrational. |
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Definition
| False. WHR Rivers believed they were wrong, and was biased towards western bio-medicine, but he understood that based on the underlying principles of a culture's medical practice, the systems as a whole tend to be highly logical. |
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Term
| What is the Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus? |
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Definition
| An ancient Egyptian medical text that contained 48 case descriptions, and proposed treatments and prognosis for each. It was organized anatomically, from head to toe. |
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Term
| Why is the Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus relevant? |
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Definition
| It shows a high degree of empiricism (explanations of relocating jaw suggest dedicated study of the procedure over time and refinement). Also relevant for presenting disease as localized in origin. |
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Term
| Explain the contrasts between surgeons and physicians in ancient Egyptian medicine and why surgical texts are seen today as more important. |
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Definition
| Physicians were of the higher class, and were focused on complex academic theorizations, while surgeons were of the lower class, and had more hands on knowledge of the body. THey were focused not on the theoretical underpinnings of disease, but the localized healign of specific body parts. This leads to the localization of disease in the body in the West from the renaissance to contemporary era. |
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Term
| True or False: Ancient Greek Physicians believed that disease was natural, not supernatural, in origin. |
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Definition
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Term
| True or False: Ancient Greek Physicians continued the Egyptian Surgical ideology that disease was localized rather than a general process of the body. |
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Definition
| False. Ancient Greek Physicians understood disease as a generalized phenomenon. |
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Term
| True or False: Hippocrates lived during the 5th century BCE |
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Definition
| Both? Hippocrates is dates as living during the 5th century BCE, and most of the texts that bear his name are from that century. However, Hippocrates was not necessarily a single individual, but rather a name that became associated with medicine, and was applied to a particular school of medical thought. there may have been many Hippocrates-es |
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