Cultural Systems Model

Medical Anthropology ANTH 2301 Cultural Systems Model Another hypothesis that takes culture into account a lot is the cultural systems model. The cultural systems model is perfect for cross-cultural comparison of health systems and health outcomes. Cross-cultural comparison is a fundamental approach of anthropology as a whole. Different systems that are influenced by historical, political-economic, and sociocultural factors make up cultures. Among many other things, these systems can be health care systems, political and cultural organisations, economic establishments, and places of worship and spirituality. Different civilizations give different systems varying priorities and give different components of their culture and society more or less weight. The cultural systems model examines how certain cultural contexts favour some fields of medical knowledge over others. Additionally, many cultures may be contrasted with one another by applying the cultural systems approach. Tsipy Ivry's Embodying Culture: Pregnancy in Japan and Israel (2009), which explores pregnancy and birth in Israel and Japan, provides an illustration of the cultural systems concept in action. A specific area of interest is the ways in which cultural perspectives on pregnancy and state-mandated restrictions on pregnancy impact women in various societies. Both countries have socialised medicine, but they place distinct priorities on how to care expectant mothers and their unborn children. According to the Israeli cultural conception of pregnancy, a woman becomes a mother from the moment her kid breathes for the first time. Ivry outlines a cultural paradigm in which fear of medical issues that are seen to be outside the control of the mother and doctor during pregnancy has a significant influence. All pregnancies are considered high risk, delaying personhood and connection until after delivery. Israel's national health care system forces women to undergo extensive diagnostic testing and abort pregnancies that pass on genes linked to disorders like Tay-Sachs disease in order to preserve a safe and healthy gene pool and eliminate genes that might be harmful to offspring. Japan, whose birth rates are declining, puts pressure on women to prioritise their health and renounce personal preferences in order to maintain the country's fertility rate. The Japanese cultural concept of pregnancy places a strong emphasis on the mother's body serving as the foetal habitat. It is a mother's duty to provide the ideal environment for her unborn child from the moment of conception. Mothers keep a careful eye on their bodies, food consumption, weight increase, and interactions with stress. Working while pregnant is severely discouraged in Japan. Ivry pointed out that although moms in Israel work through childbirth, many women in the US even abandon their jobs in advance of becoming pregnant. Medical anthropologists may also investigate how medical systems change when they interact with other cultures thanks to the cultural systems concept. To illustrate this, let's take a look at how mental illness is treated. Other nations handle mental illness differently from the United States, where it is treated with pharmacological medications and clinical therapy. Gender dysmorphia and schizophrenia are interpreted within the context of Thai society. Rather than being stigmatised as diseases, these afflictions are seen as gifts that play important roles in society. On the other hand, psychological care is stigmatised in Japan, where pharmacological treatment is more common than it once was and psychological diagnoses have become mainstream in recent decades. Research on depression in Japan by Junko Kitanaka emphasises how depressed individuals are typically expected to suffer in secret and in quiet. She ties Japan's high rates of stress and suicide to this socially imposed silence (2015). These three approaches to mental illness may be effectively evaluated using the cultural systems model, which also provides a platform for comparison between the US, Thailand, and Japan. This significant comparative approach, which places ethnomedicine on par with biomedicine rather than placing one above the other, is essential to the theoretical framework of many medical anthropologists. Many interdisciplinary approaches and ideas are included in the cultural systems model. Numerous civilizations acknowledge that specific words, deeds, or exhibits—like attire or amulets—communicate a certain degree of pain to the greater group. Examples are the customs of hanging "the evil eye" in Greece and, in the United States, tying a yellow ribbon around an oak tree during World War II. These behaviours are known as "idioms of distress," which are covert methods for people in a particular cultural setting to convey their pain. An even more psychologically motivated factor is the reason for people's actions, or what's referred to as causal attributions. Causal attributions concentrate on the environmental and individual factors that lead to unexpected behaviours. In the context of Haitian Vodou, an explanation for strange behaviour like aimlessly meandering around the streets might be spirit possession; in contrast, in American culture, actions like blowing one's nose and sneezing can be attributed to self-care neglect. Causal attributions may have bearing on a person's own health. Arthur Kleinman, a psychiatrist and anthropologist, has come to the conclusion that asking patients what they believe is wrong with them might help physicians and other carers make informed treatment decisions. A patient may believe that a spirit possession is the reason behind their epilepsy. Someone others would argue that their food and culture make diabetes unavoidable for them. These theories and convictions can help a physician create therapies that are both suitable and successful. The explanatory model is the method Kleinman suggests using. The explanatory approach urges medical professionals to elicit detailed information from patients in order to gain a deeper knowledge of their worldview, culture, and perception of their own health.