Medical anthropology: Some contrasts with medical sociology

Abstract

In spite of many similarities, the fields of medical anthropology and medical sociology differ significantly in origins, in research methodologies, and in emphases. Medical anthropology has developed from three sources; (1) the traditional ethnographic interest in primitive medicine, (2) the culture and personality movement of the 1940s and (3) the international public health movement following World War II. A holistic, systems approach to research appears to characterize medical anthropology more than medical sociology. Anthropologists traditionally have studied the underdogs, the world's primitive and peasant peoples. They reflect this orientation in their tendency to identify with patients and health workers near the bottom of the medical hierarchy, rather than with physicians and other high status professionals. In the final analysis the medical anthropologist sees problems in a cultural context, while the medical sociologist sees them in a social context.