Medical Anthropology

This thesis analyses the social relationships of a group of northern Hai || om, who also call themselves =j=Akhoe, in the Oshikoto region of Namibia. The Hai ||om are a Khoisan-speaking group, labelled "Bushmen" or "San" by outsiders, who were dispossessed of their land during the colonial period. Today most Hai || om combine hunting, gathering, agriculture, handicrafts, wage labour, and cattle-keeping in a mixed economy. The Hai || om changing economy has elements of an immediate-retum strategy aimed at gaining access to the delayed-retum economies of neighbouring groups, particularly Owambo-speaking agropastoralists, and farmers of European origin. Based on long-term participant observation with the Hai || om, this thesis shows the flexibility and versatility of Hai || om social organization and its institutions. Particular reference is made to the ways in which social categories are established on the basis of material transactions (sharing, giftgiving, bartering and commercial exchange), and are grounded in shared classifications of land and its resources. The thesis documents and analyses how Hai || om construct and maintain social relations, including relations with outsiders, in everyday social interaction. Patterns of Hai || om social practice involving these social relations emerge in language pragmatics, in the usage of space, and in ritual activities. The thesis also includes an analysis of representations of ethnic identity and economic difference in Hai||om folklore. The investigation shows that Hai || om social relationships and social values continue to shape the diversity and overall flexibility that characterize Hai || om life today. Although Hai || om have little power to influence the conditions imposed on them by national and international contexts, Hai || om social strategies across changing conditions can be explained on the basis of a set of instituted social practices centred around open accessibility and informal common ground. The material presented in this thesis was collected during a total of twentythree months of field research in the years 1990-1994 with the Hai||om in Namibia. The core area of my research was the Oshikoto region (formally part of the Tsumeb district and Owamboland) in the central north of Namibia where Hai || om also refer to themselves as 4=Akhoe.

ADHD is, I argue, an impairment in sense of time and a matter of difference in rhythm; it can be understood as a certain being in the world, or more specifically, as a disruption in the experience of time and a state of desynchronization and arrhythmia. Through excerpts of interviews with adults diagnosed with ADHD and observations, I illustrate how impairment in time is manifested in an embodied experience of being out of sync. I suggest that the experience of ADHD is characterized as 1) an inner restlessness and bodily arrhythmia; 2) an intersubjective desynchronization between the individual and its surroundings; and 3) a feeling of lagging behind socially due to difficulties in social skills. In closing, I argue that an increasingly accelerating society is augmenting the experience of being out of sync rather than eliminating it.

This article explores the physiological effects of food-related thoughts and their potential role in the development of Type-2 Diabetes. While overconsumption of food is a known contributor to insulin resistance and obesity, this piece argues that merely thinking about food can also trigger similar metabolic responses. Through the Cephalic Phase Response, mental anticipation of eating activates digestive processes such as salivation, gastric acid secretion, and a rise in insulin levels—before any food is consumed. Frequent stimulation of this response, driven by food advertising and cultural obsession with eating, may contribute to chronic hyperinsulinemia, insulin resistance, and ultimately, Type-2 Diabetes. The article emphasizes the impact of subconscious food cues and overthinking on physiological states, suggesting that managing obsessive food-related thoughts could be as important as dietary choices in preventing metabolic disease.

The essay titled On astrology (περὶ τῆς ἀστρολογίης) in the Lucianic corpus has been the object of contradictory interpretations in the recent scholarly history: disregarded as spurious by many, or a serious text in defense of astrology possibly dedicated to a Stoic patron, a parody of a Ionian philosopher, or a Stoic parody. A crucial step forward is represented by Lightfoot’s study of Lucian’s Ionic, according to which we must accept his authorship of On astrology. In this article I attempt to show that in this short piece we have a parody of an astrological defense—an established subgenre in Lucian’s age—which throughout the majority of the text makes exaggerated use of mythical rationalizations of the type frequently employed in historical works to explain the origin of human practices. Since (a) Herodotus was a paradigmatic case of that practice, (b) because of the Ionic dialect, and (c) considering the kind of parody employed by the writer from Samosata in his other piece in Ionic (On the Syrian goddess) and his frequent practice of strikingly combining different genres in a single work, we can conclude that Lucian also wore the mask of the historian here.

The COVID-19 pandemic posed unique challenges for Tibetan refugees in India, exacerbating socio-economic vulnerabilities while disrupting religious and communal life. However, Tibetan Buddhism played a central role in shaping the community’s response, offering both psychological resilience and practical coping mechanisms. This blog will explore how Buddhist teachings, digital religious mediation, and community-led humanitarian initiatives facilitated both immediate crisis response and long-term adaptation. Drawing from qualitative fieldwork conducted in Tibetan settlements in Dharamshala and Delhi during the second wave of the pandemic, it examines how Tibetan Buddhist institutions, monks, and lay practitioners navigated the pandemic and its aftermath.

Buddhist teachings on impermanence, compassion, and mindfulness were integral to how Tibetan refugees made sense of the crisis. His Holiness the Dalai Lama and senior monastic figures, including Ratna Vajra Rinpoche and Ven. Geshe Dorji Damdul provided spiritual guidance, framing the pandemic as an opportunity for introspection and compassionate action. As restrictions limited in-person religious gatherings, Tibetan Buddhist institutions rapidly transitioned to digital platforms, ensuring continued access to teachings and rituals. This shift towards "digital Buddhism" has persisted beyond the pandemic, expanding access to religious discourse and strengthening transnational Tibetan Buddhist networks.

The pandemic also underscored the principle of interdependence, a core tenet of Mahayana Buddhism. Tibetan settlement offices, monasteries, and grassroots organizations mobilized resources for both Tibetans and local Indian communities, providing food relief, medical aid, and financial assistance. Tibetan nurses and healthcare workers actively contributed to India’s pandemic response, reinforcing their role as active participants in the host society. Additionally, traditional Tibetan medicine (Sowa Rigpa) gained renewed importance as a complementary health intervention, though tensions arose regarding its recognition within modern public health frameworks. Now, in 2025, Tibetan refugees continue to face post-pandemic challenges. Many small businesses, particularly seasonal sweater-selling enterprises, have struggled to recover, leading to a shift towards alternative livelihoods. However, the pandemic has also catalyzed enduring changes, particularly in religious engagement. The increased reliance on digital platforms has reshaped how Tibetan Buddhism is practised and transmitted, ensuring continuity despite geographic displacement.

By documenting these shifts, this blog will contribute to broader discussions on the intersection of religion, migration, and crisis adaptation. The Tibetan experience offers valuable insights into how religious communities not only endure adversity but actively reshape their spiritual and social landscapes in response to global disruptions.

Reactie op artikel in NRC van 5 april 2025 over de relatie tussen economisch bestel en mentale gezondheid van Kees Cools en Jim van Os. Hoezo is deze relatie tot nog toe 'vrijwel onbesproken' gebleven???  Overigens stond er in mijn versie niet "Het artikel doet me denken aan..." maar "Het artikel laat zich lezen als een parafrase van...". Jammer van die redactionale afzwakking.

Background: Even though the caesarean section is an essential component of comprehensive obstetric and new born care for reducing maternal and neonatal mortality, higher rates do not necessarily imply better quality of care. Primary caesarean section rate is one of the main indicators of quality of care and hospital rankings are usually based on it, therefore lower rates reflect more appropriate clinical practice. The aim of this study is to describe the demographics and one-year trend of Caesarean rate in a border static hospital in India from January 2019 to December 2019. Methods: Details of 440 deliveries occurring from January 2019 to December 2019 were collected from hospital records from statistics section of a border static hospital in India and analysed. Results: 337 patients (76.59%) had normal vaginal deliveries whilst 103 patients (23.40%) underwent Caesarean section. Antenatal Care visit is an opportune time to explain the indications and hazards associated with CS birth and women should be educated and encouraged for normal vaginal delivery rather than drifting woman towards profit driven unnecessary and unwarranted caesarean sections. The most fertile age group was between 20 -38 years of age and patients who had normal vaginal were comparatively younger as compared to those who underwent Caesarean section. Multi gravid women had higher rates of Caesarean as compared to primigravida. Urban, educated women from well to do families had higher rates of Caesarean section as compared to rural women from lower socioeconomic strata. The rate of Caesarean section is high and there is a need to maintain a fine balance between a decision to perform a Caesarean section to reduce maternal and perinatal mortality rate and an unnecessary caesarean section causing pulling resources away from other services in an already overloaded and weak health system.

Psychoanalysis has produced an ensemble of institutions, expertise, procedures, and practices for rendering the psychoanalytic subject legible and, through this, psychic life as an actionable site of intervention, dislocation, and struggle. This article examines how diverse psychoanalytic communities in Buenos Aires have produced unique grammars that influence how individuals articulate ideas about health and well‐being. Descriptive, culturally specific, historically informed, and always provisional, this grammar is empirically grounded in lived experience. Through presenting several case studies, I flesh out how this grammar, as a deictic expression of/for the unconscious is deployed, reworked, and embodied in everyday interactions. I demonstrate how psychic life is enmeshed within social and political experience. In doing so, I consider how interpersonal, existential, environmental, social, and political contingencies shape divergent notions of well‐being and structure desires of ...

El éxito de Cuba en el campo de la salud pública a menudo se asocia a altos índices estadísticos alcanzados por la población en muchas áreas. Ésto ha llevado a muchos estudiosos a hacer de la isla un "anti-modelo" de desarrollo. Sin embargo, los investigadores en esta línea de pensamiento caen en lo que yo llamo fetichismo estadístico. Esta forma de fetichismo tiene un objetivo específico. Los indicadores básicos de salud en Cuba proporcionan un modelo de la realidad, pero no permiten el examen crítico de lo que las cifras reflejan o cómo se obtienen. Este artículo propone el amplio examen de los procesos sociales, que moldean e influyen en el sistema primario de salud pública en Cuba. Concretamente, el trabajo examina cómo el colapso del bloque soviético y el fortalecimiento del embargo por parte de los Estados Unidos están cambiando la experiencia y la aceptación que la población tiene del sistema de salud. Además, el trabajo analiza cómo los cambios en la dinámica de las relaciones entre la población y la burocracia médica han transformado también los modos en que el Estado ejerce y representa su poder de un modo más sutil a través de la imposición de una disciplina física a nivel individual. palabras claves: Cuba, antropología médica, subjetividad, prácticas cotidianas, Poder Estatal.

ABSTRACTThrough an engagement with historical, epistemological, and ethnographic modes of analyses, I trace how individual bodily practices—that is, practices relating to the body and its health—in contemporary Cuba provide a fertile terrain for examining the multiple pathways through which political subjectivities are created and transformed. Specifically, I highlight the ways in which these practices serve as de facto access to basic health services and supplies and actively contribute to the daily functioning of Cuba's socialist health care system. I argue that scholars must move beyond contrasting rote descriptions of socialism vis‐à‐vis capitalism and, rather, look to new fields of inquiry that address the coproduction and coexistence of different forms of capital and new configurations of statecraft and subjectivity in 21st‐century Cuba. [Cuba, state, capital, bodily practices, subjectivity, socialism]

la signification et les mécanismes de cette technologie électorale aux Luguru, Linton et ses subordonnés eurent recours à l'exécution d'une pièce de théâtre. Dans « un sketch court mais très animé », ils mirent en scène « un électeur demeuré auquel un administrateur colonial quelque peu résigné apprenait le fonctionnement du vote ». En présentant, plus tard, les temps forts de cette élection, Linton décrivait successivement : « […] l'homme qui n'avait jamais entendu parler d'aucun des trois principaux candidats [au poste de sous-chef] ; l'homme qui avait fidèlement reproduit l'imitation initiale d'un électeur stupide qu'avait donné M. Duff ; [et] la femme qui avait apporté la feuille d'impôts de son mari et, après avoir longuement regardé le fonctionnaire chargé d'enregistrer les votes, avait finalement voté selon les instructions de son mari, résistant à la tentation de se comporter comme dans une autre élection de district et de voter pour Bwana Shauri [terme swahili désignant l'administrateur colonial britannique] 1 . » Comme ses collègues, Linton était convaincu que le vote impliquait un progrès démocratique ; il interprétait le manque d'intérêt des Luguru comme un effet de l'analphabétisme et de l'ignorance, un signe de leur conservatisme et de leur traditionalisme. Curieusement, ces Luguru « conservateurs » -dans la mesure où il leur était permis de voter -ne se rendirent aux urnes que six ans plus tard, en septembre 1958, pour choisir les représentants du Conseil législatif lors du premier scrutin secret organisé au Tanganyika. Les changements rapides impulsés par les instances internationales et par la montée du mouvement nationaliste africain firent pression sur l'administration britannique. Les élections au Conseil législatif marquèrent à bien des égards un virage dans le processus de décolonisation, car elles donnèrent au Tanganyika African National Union (Tanu), le parti de l'opposition officielle, une majorité écrasante. Les Luguru, comme les autres électeurs de la province de l'Est, votèrent massivement (74 % des électeurs inscrits 2 ). Ils élirent le président de la Tanu, Julius Nyerere 3 , à une majorité des trois quarts contre son adversaire Patrick Kunambi, chef-adjoint du gouvernement local d'Uluguru. Malgré le scepticisme des administrateurs coloniaux quant à la préparation des électeurs africains à l'exercice du vote, l'élection se déroula sans à-coup. L'introduction de ce mode de représentation démocratique fut présentée dans les commentaires officiels, ainsi que dans ceux des experts, comme un passage soudain du gouvernement local à une politique nationale centralisée. Ces mêmes commentateurs gardèrent le silence sur les obstacles que l'ignorance, l'analphabétisme et la tradition auraient pu opposer à la mise en place réussie du mode d'élection au scrutin secret 4 . L'attitude des administrateurs britanniques lors des élections de 1952 montre comment ils construisirent des interprétations en termes de tradition et de

Jennie Gamlin is a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow based in the Institute for Global Health at UCL. Jennie has carried out extensive research in Mexico and the UK on reproductive and maternal health and has worked for the past 10 years with indigenous Wixárika communities. She is also co-director of the UCL Centre for Gender and Global Health and teaches and writes about the political economy of gender and health. Sahra Gibbon is associate professor in the Medical Anthropology Department at UCL. She has carried out research in the UK, Cuba and Brazil examining developments in genomics, public health, activism, gender and identity. Her recent publications include (as co-editor) The Routledge Handbook of Genomics, Health and Society (2018) and she is editor, with Jennie Gamlin, of the UCL Press book series Embodying Inequalities.

The use of family history as a predictive tool in medicine is widely accepted, yet its significance is overstated for non-genetic diseases. While a small percentage of diseases are caused by inheritable genetic mutations, the vast majority—estimated at 90–95%—are driven by lifestyle and environmental factors. This article critically examines the assumption that familial disease history indicates individual risk, arguing that cultural, environmental, and technological changes across generations render many such comparisons misleading and inaccurate. It highlights how inherited behaviors, such as diet or clothing habits, may masquerade as genetic inheritance. The role of negative expectation and belief in shaping health outcomes is also considered, as fear induced by medical predictions and testing for familial diseases can itself be detrimental. The article questions the commercial motivations that often accompany tests and the resulting preventive treatments, which can last a lifetime. Ultimately, it calls for a shift away from genetic fatalism and toward individual agency, cultural context, and personal responsibility in health.

(traduzione italiana dell’articolo Rewriting Reiki: the Yokoi hypothesis and the politics of spiritual whiteness)

Questo articolo propone un’analisi culturale e antropologica critica della cosiddetta ipotesi Yokoi — ovvero l’affermazione secondo cui il Reiki non avrebbe avuto origine con Mikao Usui, ma con il pastore cristiano Tokio Yokoi. Piuttosto che valutare tale ipotesi su basi storiche, il saggio ne esamina le funzioni discorsive e politiche. L’argomentazione centrale è che la narrazione Yokoi esemplifichi una forma di whitewashing spirituale: un’operazione simbolica che cancella la genealogia buddhista e giapponese del Reiki, sostituendola con un mito d’origine compatibile con il cristianesimo e leggibile in termini razziali.

Attraverso il metodo genealogico di Foucault, gli studi sulla bianchezza e la teoria critica della razza, l’articolo esplora come privilegio epistemologico e autorità spirituale vengano co-costruiti tramite meccanismi di appropriazione culturale, riterritorializzazione religiosa e spiritualità neoliberale. Il testo dialoga con materiali etnografici, in particolare con il lavoro di Dori Beeler sul Reiki come abbandono (surrender), e colloca la narrazione Yokoi all’interno di più ampie dinamiche post-secolari di legittimazione, mercificazione e desiderio spirituale. In questo modo, si interrogano le condizioni sotto le quali le storie spirituali vengono costruite, autorizzate e consumate nei contesti euro-americani contemporanei.

The purpose of the study was to compare anthropometrical indicators measured in a populational group of 942 persons from Bacau county with standards on Moldova. The study analyze high and weigh parameters for children under 18 years old and Body Mass Index for adults. The average BMI in groups on ages shows a normal weigh for the group of age 18-30 and a tendecy of overweigh for all other groups of ages. In an analysis on sex groups we can notice the same normal average of BMI at the age group of 18-30 and a overweigh in the rest of the groups on ages, especially in women groups. The diferences for the parameters high and weigh in the groups under 18 compared with the standards fits into -1σ for weigh and -1σ for high (group of girls 11 years old from rural and group of boys 17 years old from urban) and +1σ for the group of boys 17 years old from rural. Either for group of girls 11 years old from rural or for the group of boys 17 years old from urban, both the weigh and the high are...

Adolescents’ need for Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) has been underscored globally. Poor utilization of the services by adolescents has been reported. Adolescent-friendly healthcare professionals are very important in motivating adolescents’ utilisation of SRH services in Nigeria. This study assessed the preferred facility and Service providers by in-school adolescents in Osun state, Nigeria. A descriptive cross-sectional design was employed to survey 422 in-school adolescents in public and private secondary schools in Osun state. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select participants and data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Quantitative data analysis was done using descriptive and inferential statistics with SPSS version 23. The majority (91.0%) of adolescents were middle-aged (14 – 16 years) while a few (9.0%) were late adolescents (17-19 years). Preference when assessing SRH services was more for doctors (36.5%) and nurses (30.3%). Preferred facilities for SRH services include private hospitals (38.3 %), school clinics (26.4%), primary health centres (6.5%), general hospitals (2.5%), Maternity centres (11.4%) and teaching hospitals (1%). Active utilization of SRH by adolescents requires the availability and involvement of their preferred health personnel.

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The information, practices and views in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG).

Antimicrobial resistance poses a growing threat to public health, as infections from resistant strains of microbial become increasingly difficult and expensive to treat, resulting in prolonged illness and greater risk of death. A cross-sectional descriptive study was done among 471 higher secondary level students of private schools in Kathmandu Valley. Data were collected from Grade 11 and 12 non-science faculty students through self-administered questionnaires. Half (50.5%) of the students gave correct response by saying that antibiotic kills bacteria and 49.1% said that it is for fever. Majority (93.0%) of them said that it should be taken with water. Regarding the response on when to stop taking antibiotic, 46.9% said correctly by saying when all prescribed medicines are taken whereas and 40.8% said that after feeling better. More than half (58.8%) of the students had not heard about antibiotic resistance, whereas those who have heard among them 24% of students said that they had...

Recommended Citation Cerón, Alejandro; Dillinger, Kylie; Eitniear, Madison; Ernstrom, Sophia; Hedidar, Walid; Hellinga, Christiana; Himebaugh, Travis; Landau, Aaron J.; Nilsson, Julian; Penn, Lindsey; Redman, Madison; Retzik-Stahr, Cimmaron; Schwartz, Laurel; Seeto, Isabelle; Sweet, Madeline; Thomson, Angelina M. R.; Wolf, Margaret; and Wuertz, Natalie, "Global Kidney Exchange: Analysis and Background Papers from the Perspective of Medical Anthropology" (2017). Anthropology: Undergraduate Student Scholarship. 2. https://digitalcommons.du.edu/anthropology_student/2

Forgetting. Bad memories and the banality of evil.

A forgotten episode of the Memory Wars reveals a clinical judgment based on an equivocal lexicon: ‘reliving the event’ is one of the symptomatic criteria for recognizing psychological trauma and a lever for therapies (‘making the event be relived’) to finally ‘live again.’ The Propanolol molecule makes the therapeutic objective unambiguous since ‘forgetting’ ends with bad memories. Still, it also provokes an ethical quarrel: pharmacology is a medical instrument of good to relieve victims and a paradoxical political instrument to trivialize evil. This article aims to determine the values of psychic healing the lexicon brings to clinical judgment. The analysis focuses on three equivocations: (i) the change in status of the verb ‘relive,’ (ii) the metaphors used to express psychic healing, and (iii) the neglect of the status of the passions. The conclusion is that to relive is not to forget; on the contrary, it is to remember because remembering is a moral reappraisal that substitutes a passion for an affect.

Keywords : Historical epistemology, psychiatry, trauma, healing

program professors and peers. I would like to acknowledge Dr. Linda Barnes for her time and efforts in assisting in the development of my work. Her long hours and support were essential throughout this journey. Her guidance enriched my work and enabled me to grow as a Medical Anthropologist. I am also grateful for Dr. Lance Laird's support, which was essential in establishing this study. He led me toward new directions and helped me explore and solidify important avenues of thought. Dr. Diane Weiner was also instrumental to this thesis, giving constant and lively encouragement during trying bureaucratic deliberations. Her matchless positive spirit was the best remedy for graduate weariness and life's challenges. Her compassion, thoughtfulness, and dedication for students and life will remain with me forever. During the end stages of this study, Dr. Bayla Ostrach provided insightful and supportive feedback at a moment's notice. She exhibited an endless dedication to her students and our work, always encouraging us. I give deepest thanks to the Ethiopian community of Boston, who welcomed me with kindness. I am grateful to all of those who took time out of their lives to participate in this study. Their efforts and abilities to accurately report details of past events and people were outstanding and essential to this study. I am thankful for the guidance, encouragement, and love of my family-Mom, Dad, Amber, Max, and Keegan. Lastly, and most affectionately, infinite thanks to Derek Wilson, who read, reread, and edited countless drafts of this thesis. I am enormously grateful for his steadfast support and companionship. v "WHO MINUS WHO": SUICIDE IN BOSTON'S ETHIOPIAN COMMUNITY

This thesis examines suicide in Boston’s Ethiopian Community. The act of suicide and individual cases are explored through participant narratives. Narratives from family members and acquaintances of those who died by suicide are examined. I rely on in-depth (N=8) and follow-up interviews (N=7). Drawing heavily on culturally constructed notions of self, this thesis explores what it has meant for persons of the Ethiopian community to lose fellow members to suicide. Intersections of emotions, constructions of choice and agency, and idealized notions of self emerge as central themes. The body, in life and death, is situated as a vehicle for communicating dis-eased social relationships and unrealistic cultural expectations. Participants position their perceptions of the deceased in relation to popular preconceived notions of life in the United States and stresses encountered during and after the immigration process. Memory of Ethiopia, the United States, immigration, and the suicide are ...

This article offers a critical cultural and anthropological analysis of the so-called Yokoi Hypothesis—the claim that Reiki did not originate with Mikao Usui but with the Christian pastor Tokio Yokoi. Rather than evaluating this hypothesis on historical grounds, the paper examines its discursive and political functions. I argue that the Yokoi narrative exemplifies a form of spiritual whitewashing: a symbolic operation that erases the Buddhist and Japanese genealogy of Reiki and replaces it with a Christian-compatible, racially legible origin myth. Drawing on Foucault’s genealogical method, whiteness studies, and critical race theory, I explore how epistemological privilege and spiritual authority are co-constructed through mechanisms of cultural appropriation, religious reterritorialization, and neoliberal spirituality. The article engages with ethnographic materials, particularly Dori Beeler’s work on Reiki as surrender, and situates the Yokoi narrative within broader post-secular dynamics of legitimacy, commodification, and spiritual desire. In doing so, it questions the conditions under which spiritual histories are constructed, authorized, and consumed in contemporary Euro-American contexts.

This article critiques a recent study published in Molecular Systems Biology that found mRNA COVID-19 vaccines induce long-term epigenetic changes in immune cells, leading to persistent cytokine production and inflammation. The article argues that this sustained immune activation may contribute to long-COVID-like symptoms and poses potential long-term health risks. It expresses concern that these changes could extend to germ cells that make sperm, potentially affecting future generations. The article also criticizes the way mainstream sources, such as SciTechDaily, present the study’s findings, suggesting they attempt to frame persistent inflammation as a beneficial immune training effect. Ultimately, the article warns against the risks of prolonged inflammation from mRNA vaccines and questions their long-term safety.

The anthropology of possibility-and the phenomenological traditions it often draws on-has predominantly been oriented towards the future, the not-yet. With an empirical point of departure in fieldwork among older Kyrgyz Muslims who become old in the absence of younger relatives and drawing on the critical phenomenology of Alia Al-Saji, I explore the what-might-have-been as a space of possibility that is equally important in human life as a space in which one may dwell and even thrive, and which may gain in importance as a person becomes older. I argue that if we want to understand the existential importance of what-might-have-been and question the futurity bias in anthropology, we need to understand the past, not as frozen and inert, but as a space of possibility that keeps opening in new ways. I find the inspiration for doing so in the Kyrgyz concept of qayip duino (the hidden or unseen world) and Al-Saji's concept of hesitation.

Whenever anyone wears a “supportive” garment, the garment is acting as a ligament, since ligaments support body structures. In the case of the breasts, you often see them “supported” by bras. This means the bra
serves as a ligament to hold the breasts elevated and firmly against the chest. This is what a ligament does, except this one is on the outside of the breast.

Biophysics and biomechanics show how tight clothing can interfere with the extracellular matrix and lymphatic circulation due to compression and constriction. Our bodies were not designed to have exo-ligaments pressing on our skin from the outside.

Of course, supporting the breasts from the outside compresses the bra to the chest. That is different than supporting the breasts from within the tissue, where the breasts are anchored in place to the chest wall by the natural, internal suspensory ligaments. Being anchored to the chest from the inside does not lead to compression, but being smashed to the chest from the outside does cause compression.

What happens when you compress the breasts with a bra exo-ligament is explored in this article, and includes lymph stasis, breast pain, cysts, and cancer.

The clock-drawing test, a cognitive screening test widely used clinically, is here taken as a window onto forms of temporality present in clinical encounters involving dementia. Drawing on close reading of clinical notes from their medical records, I offer imagistic silhouettes of three older adults in the Seattle area who had no living spouse or children when they developed dementia. Attending to temporality in these records brings clinical interactions into focus as part of the fundamental relationality of dementia, even as attending dementia highlights the fundamental relationality of time. The article examines how small-scale singularities of time in the clinic bear the imprint of collective temporal registers, including cultural expectations of the life course and larger histories of labour and medicineand how dementia can unsettle these forms and layers of temporality. Both temporality and dementia alike, I argue, are thoroughly social, historical, and embodied phenomena, their disorientations tangled up together for the time being.

¥ ramach badań nad s tru k tu rą fu n k c jo n a ln ą H u e ju tla p rzep ro w a dzano t e ż b lis k o 100 wywiadów w c z a s ie tzw . " t ia n g u is d o m in ic a l" , n ie d z ie ln y c h ta rgów , na k t ó r e ś c ią g a ją s p r z e d a ją c y i k u p u jący z różn ych s tr o n r e g io n u . Ponadto przeprow adzono wywiady w n a s tę p u ją c y c h za k ła d a ch p rzem ysłow ych ; w 3 cukrow niach / " E l H ig o " w E l H ig o , " P la n de A y a la " w Cd. V a lle s o ra z " A lia n z a P o p u la r" w Tambaca/, w oementow ni "Cementos Anahuac" i fa b r y c e p rze tw ó rs tw a mleka " J ie s tlo " w łamuin , 2 . Badania na temat cech s p o łe c z n y c h i go sp o d a rczy ch r o l n i ciwa, przeprow adzane w 33 m ie js c o w o ś c ia c h , p o z w o liły na zgrom adze n ie danych d o ty c z ą c y c h : -zU e j.id o s /fu n k cjon ow an ia s p o łe c z n o ś c i e j i d a l n e j i in d y w i dualnych p a rc e l-g o s p o d a rs tw / o rat; -13 gospodarstw pryw atn ych , Dodatkowymi ź ró d ła m i in fo rm a r-ji na temat fu n k cjon ow a n ia r o l n ic tw a w s k a l i lo k a ln e j b y ły in s t y t u c je i s t o w a r z y s z e n ia : Tabacos M exicanos S .A . /w P la to n Sanchez/, 3 wym ienione w y ż e j cu k row n ie, S to w a rzy s ze n ia Hodowców B ydła / A s o c ia c ió n Ge.uad era / w Cd. V a lle s , Iv a n Sralipe i Tamuin, S to w a rzy s ze n ia Drobnych Producentów T r z c in y Cuujrowej /Union de Pequonos P ro d u cto re3 Cańeros/ w E l H ig o , Cd, V a lle s i Taiabaca. 3. Dane d o ty c z ą c e p ro b le m a ty k i s p o łe c z n o -k u ltu r o w e j gromadzo no p r z y o k a z ji badań nad cecham i osad n ictw a i r o ln ic t w a » Ola u p ro s z c z e n ia za g a d n ie n ia t e w łączono do odpow iedn ich k w e s tio n a r iu s z y . U z u p e łn ia ją c e in fo r m a c jo uzyskano w C en tro C oord in a d or d e i I n s t i t u t e I n d ig e n is t a w H u e ju tla , w iS tn ograficzn ym Muzeum Hogionulnyta w Cd. V a lle s o r a z , po zak oń czen iu p rac teren ow ych , w I n s t i t u t e ila e io n a l I n d ig e n is t a w M ie ś c ie Meksyk. S t r e f y badań terenow ych 1' o iłu g u ją c s ię zespołem k r y t e r ió w u w z g lę d n ia ją c y c h z je d n e j stro n y cechy p r z y r o d n ic z e , s p o io czw o -itu l turoww i go sp o d a rcze r e gionu , z d r u g ie j z a ś c e l e i p o tr z e b y t e c a tu , w yodrębniono 3

In this article, I examine the phenomenological and anthropological dimensions of rare disease experiences. Drawing on medical anthropology frameworks and O'Rourke's illness narrative, I analyze how rare diseases transform the body from a transparent medium into an opaque object that disrupts identity and worldly relations. I focus on three key themes: (1) the phenomenological rupture in undiagnosed illness, where subjective suffering meets social invisibility; (2) the essential dialogue between biomedical knowledge and anthropological understanding in contexts where traditional categories fail; and (3) the enduring healing vocation that persists despite systemic healthcare pressures. Integrating frameworks from Csordas, Kleinman, Good, and Frank, I demonstrate how rare diseases reveal broader truths about illness experience. Effective care requires recognizing patients as persons whose experiences demand legitimation, addressing both biological and existential dimensions of suffering.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is one of the most disabling consequences of trauma with unparalleled economic, social, and personal burden. Any attempt aimed at improving quality of care should be based on comprehensive and reliable data. This pilot investigation studied the feasibility of implementing the National Spinal Cord and Column Injury Registry of Iran (NSCIR-IR) and scrutinized the quality of the registered data. From October 2015 to May 2016, over an 8-month period, 65 eligible trauma patients who were admitted to hospitals in three academic centers in mainland Iran were included in this pilot study. Certified registered nurses and neurosurgeons were in charge of data collection, quality verification, and registration. Sixty-five patients with vertebral column fracture dislocations were registered in the study, of whom 14 (21.5%) patients had evidence of SCI. Mechanisms of injury included mechanical falls in 30 patients (46.2%) and motor vehicle accidents in 29 (44.6%). The cas...

To study the variations in infant mortality rate (IMR) across Colombia's 33 administrative departments over the period 2003-2009, examine persistency of variations across departments over time, and relate those variations to the impact of socio-economic conditions and availability of care on IMR. Using vital statistics and related socio-economic data we establish three types of analysis according to: (a) the variation of the departmental IMR (2003-2009), (b) the association between the departmental IMR and its key determinants over time, and (c) the lines of causality and relative impact of different factors, by using structural equations. The 4.7 fold ratio between the highest and lowest departmental IMR (2009) may be underestimated considering underreporting, especially in low-income departments. There is a negative association between the departmental IMR with time and a set of highly correlated variables, such as the mother education, income per capita, health insurance leve...

This essay examines the interplay between sound and textile practices across cultures, revealing how songs, chants, and rhythmic patterns guide textile design. Examples include the Shipibo-Conibo’s "kené" patterns, linked to healing chants; Kashmiri Talim weaving, where coded songs dictate motifs; and Persian Naqshe Khani, where recitals synchronize weaving. The discussion extends to the Jacquard loom’s influence on computing, highlighting sound as a universal coding system. These traditions demonstrate how sound bridges intangible heritage and material craft, preserving cultural memory through woven and vocal languages.

RESUMEN: En un periodo entre 2020 y 2021, en un punto álgido de la crisis sanitaria de COVID 19, se buscó dar a conocer las experiencias de atención sanitaria de primera línea del personal de enfermería, en hospitales públicos de la ciudad de San Luis Potosí, México. Nuestro objetivo fue el de realizar un ejercicio de praxis revolucionaria como reacción a toda la saturación de información, muchas veces cuestionable, infundada, o simplemente compleja para el común de la población durante la pandemia. Decidimos escuchar directamente a las voces protagónicas de la crisis sanitaria, buscando dejar de lado a todo lo que consideramos como 'ruido de fondo', tanto en el vox populi, como en el discurso mediático. Este ejercicio dio como resultado un artículo de antropología médica de corte fenomenológico que presenta nueve testimonios de personal enfermería de primera línea. Además, este artículo cuenta con un valor agregado por el hecho de que las entrevistas fueron realizadas por una enfermera integrante del mismo personal de primera línea, quien es a su vez una autora también.

In occasione della 2nd PhenoLab Summer School in Umbria, il PhenoLab – A theoretical laboratory in phenomenology and mental health e’ lieto di annunciare un side event in lingua italiana dal titolo "La ferita che ci interroga. Fenomenologia e medicina narrativa in dialogo nelle pratiche di cura"
L'evento si propone di creare un ponte di dialogo tra due ambiti di ricerca e applicazione clinica che condividono una profonda attenzione all'esperienza in prima persona: la fenomenologia e la medicina narrativa. Pur mantenendo le rispettive peculiarità epistemologiche, questi approcci si trovano in una feconda tensione dialettica, indagando non solo cosa significhi vivere con una diagnosi, ma soprattutto come tale esperienza possa riconfigurare il senso di sé e la percezione del mondo circostante. La giornata di studio intende esplorare come questi due approcci dialoghino tra loro e contribuiscano alla ridefinizione delle pratiche di cura alla luce di un fondamentale cambio di paradigma: dal modello centrato sulla diagnosi a quello focalizzato sulla persona e sulla sua costitutiva dimensione relazionale.
Con il patrocinio della Societa' Italiana di Medicina Narrativa.

In late 2022, after the rise and repression of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, a strange condition emerged among schoolgirls across Iran. While on school premises, young women momentarily lost cognitive and motor functions and became incapacitated. The Iranian public came to recognize and debate the schoolgirls’ condition as a case of mass poisoning that was caused by harmful antigens and criminal agents. This essay offers an alternative to this medical-juridical framing. It locates the incapacitation of the schoolgirls in relation to the limits of debates about women and Islamic society and the ensuing circulation of danger and destructive power that the author conceptualizes psychopolitically through the concept of witchcraft. Rather than treating the schoolgirls’ condition or the Woman, Life, Freedom movement as a momentary lapse of the social, the author conceptualizes them as a manifestation of the impossibility of the social, one that issues from a broader historical and epistemological condition: the incapacitation of tradition. While focused on revolutionary Iran, this study bears on the impersonal circulation of violence and deathliness amid the contemporary incapacitation of authoritative traditions such as religion, science, and law.

BackgroundThis qualitative evaluation follows a randomized-control trial of a patient activation intervention in which hypertensive patients received a letter in the mail asking them to discuss thiazide diuretics with their provider. Results of the parent study indicated that the intervention was effective at facilitating discussions between patients and providers and enhancing thiazide prescribing rates. In the research presented here, our objective was to interview patients to determine their receptivity to patient activation, a potential leverage point for implementing interventions.MethodsSemi-structured phone interviews were conducted with 54 patients, purposefully sampled from a randomized controlled trial of a patient activation intervention. All subjects had a history of hypertension and received primary care from one of twelve Veterans Affairs primary care clinics. All interviews were transcribed verbatim and reviewed by the interviewer. Interviews were independently coded ...

First I was an urban anthropologist, then I was a medical anthropologist on the faculty of a university medical center. Then I went to medical school, completing undergraduate, graduate and fellowship training in internal medicine and geriatrics. At first I thought of myself as an anthropologist in medical school, a privileged participant-observer of the making of doctors in the United States. Ten years out of medical training I think of myself as a physician. I am responsible for the outpatient and inpatient care of elderly patients. I am also the medical director of a nursing home. I am teaching faculty for medical students and medical residents at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago where I give both lecture and bedside instruction in the finer points of geriatric differential diagnosis and medical management. Occasionally I volunteer for teaching duties in ethics and humanities. Yet my funded research is more recognizably applied anthropology. With funding from the...

The local etiology of mental disorders in the Alevi healing tradition of Dersim point to intruders from mystical realms, "mılaket", who posess human selves with a weakened sense of personal will. Liminal temporalities and spaces are categorized as providing the setting for symbiotic encounters between the human selves and nonselves. In this work, a short introduction into the local belief on posession will be provided. The actual operation of agency in the experience of posession is exemplified on the narrative account of a local healthcare officer, who stands between modern medicine and the local healing tradition. The co-existence of biomedicine and Alevi healing tradition in Dersim is less burdened by the necessity of "trans-cultural translation", as many of the practicing biomedical professionals and administrative workers in healthcare are rooted in the Dersim Alevi culture. The reason for the possibility of co-existence can be that, the marcation lines between biomedicine and Alevi healing tradition is drawn by Dersim Alevi healthcare professionals themselves.

What is a mental illness or a psychiatric disorder? Do people in different cultures suffer from the same kinds of mental illnesses? Do mental disorders present with similar symptoms in various parts of the world? How are mental distress and suffering identified and treated in different countries or societies? These questions underpin the development of cultural psychiatry . Besides the so-called "culture-bound syndromes," neurasthenia ("shenjing shuairuo" in Mandarin) is one of the most well-known and well-studied diagnostic categories in this interdisciplinary domain. Coined by the Boston-based physician George M. Beard in 1868, neurathenia includes a broad array of symptoms such as fatigue, anxiety, inattention, insomnia, impotence, neuralgia, and many others, all attributed to nervous exhaustion due to the pressures of modern life. It was fashionable in the U.S. during the late 19th century and early 20th century, a period marked by rapid urbanization and industrialization . Neurasthenia has traveled far from its American origins; as a disease closely tied to modernization, it has become a global phenomenon. In the U.S. and Europe, its popularity was shortlived. By the 1920s or 1930s, it became faded into an obsolete diagnosis. But its presence in other parts of the world is more enduring, and East Asia stands out as a region where the disease is particularly well-received . Since the rise of cultural psychiatry in the post-war era, the evolution of neurasthenia in this region has captivated more than two generations of psychiatrists, anthropologists, and historians. The foundation of this scholarship is laid by psychiatrist-anthropologist Arthur Kleinman. Kleinman, one of the principal initiators of medical anthropology, is also a leading figure in cultural psychiatry, global mental health, medical humanities, and Chinese studies. His early work on neurasthenia, conducted successively in Taiwan and China, has become a cornerstone in understanding the complex interplay between local illness experiences and global psychiatric categories. This article revists Arthur Kleinman's seminal contributions to the cross-cultural research on neurasthenia. Recently, he visited Taipei again to receive the award of Honorary Academician from Academia Sinica. The trip also marks the 55th anniversary of his initial journey to Taiwan in 1969 as a National Institute of Health fellow assigned to the U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit No. 2. In the subsequent sections, I will examine the place of neurasthenia in his two major ethnographic projects: the Taiwan study in the 1970s and the Hunan study in the 1980s. The former study discovers the popularity of neurasthenia in Taiwan, makes a tentative connection with depression and other conditions, and highlights somatization as the underlying mechanism. The latter study fosters a debate on the correlation between neurasthenia and depression in China and provides rare empirical insights into the traumatic impacts of the Cultural Revolution. Finally, I will briefly discuss the implications of these studies and their relevance to psychiatry today.

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBI) have gained prominence in addressing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), offering alternative or adjunctive therapeutic approaches. On the other end, one of the possible consequences of PTSD are Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures (PNES). Could long-term untreated PTSD-PNES epigenetically transform into neurological epilepsy? Would MBI still be useful as an adjunctive therapeutic approach? The references herein overviewed provide some data related to: PNES vs epilepsy, PTSD-PNES, PNES-induced epigenetic epilepsy, and finally mindfulness-based interventions (MBI) impact on PTSD symptoms, along with underlying neurobiological mechanisms potentially “transforming” PNES into real epilepsy.

Reproductive processes and the generation of posterity are important for the survival of organisms. As man became accustomed to civilized life, motherhood and fatherhood were considered noble and fortunate things. Accordingly, a married couple without children had to face various forms of social stigma. Because married people who do not have children are believed by people to be a symbol of unluck. Thus, infertility is recognized as a disease and there are various treatments for it. Traditional folk medicine in Sri Lanka also offers various treatments to cure infertility. Among them, the ‘Sabaragamuwa Rathikāma Bali ritual’ is performed for both men and women. The researchers aim to study this ‘Rathikāma Bali ritual’ for the curing of infertility in traditional folk medicine and the cultural value given to rituals in indigenous medicine. To achieve these objectives, a content analysis of qualitative data collected using secondary sources is performed here. To alleviate vaginal disch...

Conflicts in care relationships convey therapeutic expectations. This study allows that assertion. It is a micro -sociological study based on an ethnographic work in a village named Bama and located in western Burkina Faso. The analysis of conflicts in health care relationships proved relevant on the following issues: -Individual mechanisms in therapeutic choices; -The perception of health workers' social lives; -The defiance-confidence towards the health worker; -The relationships between formal and informal health workers. This research enlightens two specific aspects that hel ps the understanding of conflicts in health care relationships. On one hand, the study shows that the conflict exists at the level of the mechanisms of therapeutic choices made in the domestic sphere of people approached during the field survey. This analy sis is significant because it helps to support that the conflict in health relations can occur outside the traditional relationships between health care agents and users of health services. Specifically, men exert an influence over women in the decision pr ocess on the therapeutic quest. Moreover, the male power of influence is very often reflected on the temporality and economic terms of the use of formal care. The second specific contribution of this study is the analysis of the defianceconfidence, which is the fact that many patients who consult in the village primary health facilities challenge health workers. Through the forms of disputes that arise, the defiance-confidence informs an adversarial relationship based on a double perspective: opposing to d emand more equal relationships with the health worker and to defend therapeutic preferences. Confidence in the formal health services is therefore the basic element on which relies the defiance of local health workers as well as expectations in the specifi c areas in which they operate: the acts prescribed by health workers (the diagnosis and treatment), some standards of the health system (case of the standards of reference), and the perception of health workers moral quality (integrity) sometimes establish ed according to the reception and the cost of the prescription.

O presente livro tem por base um conjunto de textos apresentados na
conferência interdisciplinar «Limitless? Imaginários, consumos e desafios
no enhancement cognitivo» realizada no Instituto de Ciências Sociais da
Universidade de Lisboa (ICS-UL), no dia 15 de Março de 2019. Esta
conferência teve como objectivo estimular o diálogo entre áreas de confluência:
a antropologia, a sociologia, a psicologia, a filosofia, a biologia,
a ciência cognitiva e a inteligência artificial. A necessidade deste debate
decorre da aceleração dos progressos técnicos e (bio)tecnológicos que se
tem vindo a assistir nos últimos 50 anos e que, a par de uma maior democratização
de produtos e intervenções com o potencial de alterar a biologia
humana com fins não terapêuticos, poderão vir a transformar radicalmente
a forma como os humanos se pensam e projectam o futuro da humanidade.
As possibilidades de manipulação da vida humana e do desempenho
social são hoje quase ilimitadas, embora, muitas vezes, eticamente questionáveis.
Este livro explora, portanto, imaginários em torno do enhancement
cognitivo emergentes em sociedades performativas e altamente
competitivas que estimulam novos mercados de «neuro-esperanças» que
geram expectativas de funcionamentos cerebrais de «super-humanos».
Analisa, também, consumos de desempenho cognitivo enquadrados num
leque diversificado de meios (i)legítimos já disponíveis e novos desafios
societais que nos levam a questionar os limites da intervenção humana no
cérebro.