In their book, Singer and Baer (2011) describe medical anthropologists as those who “seek to understand and to help others see that health is rooted in cultural conceptions, social connections, and human biology” (p.10). I agree with the authors that medical anthropology is about the embedment of the micro-level into the macro-level and vice versa. Medical anthropologists aim at discovering their patients’ backgrounds and understand their historical, cultural, economic, and political roots; gathering as much data as possible allows them not to lose track of possibly essential factors.
Every human is a part of a society, and in order to understand an individual, one should take into account his or her community and environment. I believe that it is mutual history that holds societies together; it is their common religion, traditions, customs, and beliefs. Members of the community feel that they share common ground with people who surround them – not only in means of territory, but also in means of preferences, choices, and sometimes ideas. However, not all the cultural behaviors are objectively reasonable, as, for example, a story of a Mexican folk “remedy” shows –instead of treating people, arzagon caused lead poisoning (Trotter, 2019). Such norms as believing that arzagon is helpful, get established in different ways, but the most common root is religion and traditions. Local beliefs are not usually evidence-based but rather spiritual, so if a reputable person tells that people should use some substance for curing their children, they will quite often start practicing it.
In the past, if a person deviated from local cultural norms and behaviors, he or she was severely frowned upon, and people started to question his or her reputation. I think that if there is some unreasonable rule of behavior in contemporary society, the best way to implement a change that will be ethical and culturally accepted is through communication. People have to understand what and why is going to be changed and are to believe in the necessity of the change rather than be forced to implement it.
References
Singer, M. & Baer, H. A. (2011). Introducing medical anthropology: A discipline in action (2nd ed.). Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press.
Trotter, R. T. (2019). Anthropological praxis: Translating knowledge into action. In R. M. Wulff (Ed.), A case of lead poisoning from folk remedies in Mexican American communities (pp. 146-159). New York, NY: Routledge.