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Articles on Medical anthropology

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Who gets to flourish and who doesn’t? Tony Anderson/DigitalVision via Getty Images

Psychological tips aren’t enough – policies need to address structural inequities so everyone can flourish

For people who struggle to meet their basic needs, it will take a lot more than simple psychological exercises to flourish. It will take systemic change.
With many vaccine-eligible people in the U.S. staying away, some vaccine sites have no lines. Mario Tama/Getty Images

US Black and Latino communities often have low vaccination rates – but blaming vaccine hesitancy misses the mark

People who haven’t gotten vaccinated for COVID-19 often have complex reasons for their relunctance or may face other barriers. Lumping them all together undercuts the vaccination campaign.
A painting on a rickshaw in Yogyakarta depicts Javanese men rubbing coins on each other’s back. Vladimir Wrangel/Shutterstock.com

Got a cold? In coin rubbing Indonesians trust

Coin rubbing, a traditional treatment for the common cold, is still widely used by modern Indonesians despite criticism that it is not rational.
Culture can be understood as the meanings, technologies and practices that gather around medicine within western societies. Tulane Publications/Flickr

The cultural assumptions behind Western medicine

When most of us think about the medical approach that dominates in Western countries, we tend to view it as scientific and therefore as neutral, not influenced by social or cultural processes. Yet research…

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