WPOHFall2021

 Betelnut and Bisnis in Papua New Guinea Betelnut has both cosmological and economic value Economic exchange always has social meaning Exchange is necessary in all cultures in creating and maintaining relationships both within and outside of kin relationships It is humanities 4th most widely used drug after nicotine, alcohol, and caffeine. (WOW) Most widely used drug in South Asia along with kava both can be consumed with little ceremony or as part of elaborate rituals Like Caffeine or nicotine, Betelnut gives one energy, clarity of focus and allows one to perform for extended periods of time while sating hunger. FILM Cosmological Meanings of Betelnut: Myth: Mekeo: Connects the chewing of betelnut with the knowledge of childbirth and preparing food (cooking). Identifies Betelnut as an aspect of a "cultured" human being. One who understands important knowledge. Chewed after eating if given by a woman to.a man it is a proposition Highlights the ways to affect appropriate condu...

  Illness Narratives:  Creating an evocative and impactful experience for your reader Amplifying your informant's voice, diminishing your analytical voice Creating a narrative, not an essay essays are explanatory, narratives are evocative (they give you an experience rather than information) essays have your analytical voice, narratives have the voice of the informant surrounded by thick description Thick Description: replaces analysis The block where we carried out the interview is a part of the projects built in 1974. It is a high crime area in a poor neighborhood.  The fire hydrant on the corner was broken and water squirted out on the car parked beside it. Trash litters the streets, sidewalks and lawns of weeds and abandoned syringes. The house on the corner, widows shielded by torn sheets is quiets. Beside it, men lean against a post, speaking quietly and looking about as if for someone they are expecting. The pothole in front of the house allows every vehicle that p...

  TRIPPING Psychodelics On one hand, the medicalization of psychedelics is paralleled by the expansion of institutional research and private investment as these new treatments move toward federal rescheduling and, eventually, the market.  On the other hand, the above-ground revival mirrors another one happening underground, in legal gray zones and the global tourist circuit: the popularization of indigenous ceremonial healing (with psilocybin-active mushrooms, ayahuasca, iboga, peyote and san pedro cacti, and the toad secretions of bufotenin) among otherwise modern people from urban centers. A semantic drift reflects the currency of such practices; what were once “psychedelics” are now often referred to, even outside of these traditional contexts, as “entheogens” (meaning “god-generating”), “plant medicine,” or simply “medicine.”  As mind-manifesting, god-generating, divinatory, curative, and unstable forces, these substances sit at the confluence of a number of topics pe...

  Societies may have few or a number of overlapping healers and healing professionals. There are various TYPES of healing dynamics in societies: Everybody Can Heal: in small scale societies (like H/G bands) curing knowledge and therapeutic practices is known and practiced by most adults in the group.It is a common knowledge Part-Time Specialists: among village based horticulturalists, some individuals may be known for special healing skills, but they only carry out healing as a part time occupation (spare time after subsistence activities are met) Plural Medical Systems: societies that have many distinct healing roles more highly stratified societies with wider political integration full-time professionals healing roles compete and interrelate with each other in these plural medical systems HEALING ROLES: Organizing the Diversity Authur Kleinman (1980) distinguishes between three kinds of healthcare sectors: Popular Healthcare Sector general body of knowledge available to the popul...

The symbolic inequality in "medicalization efforts" (metaphor) lies in the disadvantages it might levy.  Stigma and discrimination could result or persist for those not included in medicalized narratives or patient portrayals. More tangibly, resource imbalances could follow and exacerbate health disparities among advantaged and disadvantaged groups in society.  Health disparities, a more material form of inequality, have concerned sociologists across numerous medicalization debates (e.g. mental illness, obesity and ADHD). Scholars have noted, for example, racial disparities in health care despite increased medicalization in society Given the disparities in access to healthcare that characterize the American medical system, it is surely those who are at greatest risk for disorganizing drug use who will be most likely to be treated in institutional settings where pharmacotherapies are dispensed with minimal adjuncts in the form of counseling, educational or vocational services,...

  ·           renowned global health advocate, ·           medical anthropologist, ·           cofounder of Partners In Health, and ·           chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard     Medical School. ·          U.N. Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Community-based Medicine and Lessons from Haiti. The most publicly influential anthropologist since Margaret Mead and her mentor, the “founding father” of U.S. anthropology, Franz Boas.  ·           Seeing the world from the perspective of the planet’s poorest. Unlike many doctors (and anthropologists for that matter), Farmer has lived for decades with his patients, first in Haiti and later in communities f...

 Ethnographies pose unique challenges, because they involve a combination of fieldwork (observation, interview, survey) and critical analysis through the application of core disciplinary or course concepts.  Your  thick description  of behaviors in their context should try to paint a clear picture of the event, situation, environment, or culture in question.  If possible, bring a notepad and/or tape recorder in order to capture small details. If you cannot take notes while observing, be sure to write your thoughts down as soon after the experience as possible.  It is also extremely important to be  self-reflective;  notice how your presence might alter the environment, as well as how your  own assumptions  and  reactions to the situation  might affect what you notice and how you write about it.  spend adequate time observing and be a skillful observer. Consider questions like the following:  + What is the layout of th...