engleski

Medical Anthropology and Epidemiology-Around and Beyond the Simple Cross-Fertilization of Fields

The recent developments in medical and genetic epidemiological anthropology have promoted our discipline into a significant part of contemporary science that confirms its significance as a competent source of information. Through producing bio-historically informed type of data many of today&#8217 ; ; s socio-cultural discourses are deepened. The variability of contemporary inhabitants of Croatia, expressed in a span of investigations ranging from studies on the level of DNA analysis to those of socio-cultural importance, is most noticeable in the analysis conducted through different anthropogenetical models ("model-bound" approach) or without the hypothetic model ("model-free" approach), where we can still find the clear reflection of distinctive characteristics in small, during history reproductively isolated, human populations. Furthermore, the hypothesis concerning the connectedness between group populational kinship and a higher frequency of complex diseases (malignant diseases, renal calculus, etc.), cautions upon the much-needed necessity of acknowledging anthropological investigations as equally valuable in possible activities of solving problems that lie on the cross-roads of epidemiology, preventive health care and social sciences (TBC, AIDS, etc.). While a general critique representing populations is highly appreciated, it is only valid if it respects the complexity of all ecological components causing pathological conditions, as well the hardships of maintaining health in the era of global health commodification. The innovative approaches within this Symposium strongly confirm that medical anthropology is increasingly characterized by interdisciplinary interaction, linking micro- and macro- domains of analysis, enabling the insight into the interplay of individual, local and global political and economic dynamics.

critical medical anthropology; genetic epidemiological anthropology

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