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Some Implications of Medical Beliefs and Practices for Social Anthropology
Author(s) -
YOUNG ALLAN
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1976.78.1.02a00020
Subject(s) - medical anthropology , sociology , epistemology , medical practice , psychology , social psychology , social science , medicine , philosophy , medical education
A people's medical beliefs and practices persist because they answer instrumental and moral imperatives, and they are empirically effective. This is not the same thing as saying that they are effective from the standpoint of Western medical notions or that they always bring the results for which people hope. The empirical effectiveness of these practices has important ontological consequences, since it enables sickness episodes to communicate and confirm ideas about the real world.