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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page paper addressing the question of the nature of cultural anthropology. The author utilizes the case study presented in Anne Fadiman's ethnography "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" to illustrate the differences in approach typically entailed by mainstream medicine and tradition. The emphasis that cultural anthropology, and indeed medicine, must be both inductive and deductive, both quantitative and qualitative, is presented. Bibliography lists 7 sources.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: AM2_PPanthSc.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
Cultural anthropology is sometimes looked to to explain the contrast between people of different cultures and ethnic or behavioral
backgrounds as well as the contrast between the people of the same ethnic or racial background but different behavioral patterns (Spradley and McCurdy, 2002). While cultural anthropology can be
used to illuminate certain issues around these conflicts, it is not an exact science. That contention will be more fully explored in a review of Anne Fadimans ethnography "The
Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down". "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" is an account of the conflict
which erupts in response to what the Lee family perceive as an arrogant and uncaring medical establishment. Although revealed in the pages of a novel, these conflicts closely parallel
those that occur in many aspects of intercultural interaction (Spradley and McCurdy, 2002). In "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" the daughter has become the victim of
this establishment which through a series of errors she is converted from a life-loving young girl with a relatively simple medical problem to an invalid who is totally dependent on
her parents for her care. The tragedy here, as is true in many respects in the cross-cultural interrelationships of the immigrant experience, revolves around cultural understanding. The constructs
of cultural anthropology allow us to make inroads into cultural misperceptions and misunderstandings so that we can apply the science of such disciplines as medicine more effectively.
While the premises of cultural anthropology can be used to help us understand such cultural conflict as that outlined in this novel, it in itself is
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