Cultural Anthropology/Social Institutions/Illness, Healing, Death & Dying

As with the other social institutions introduced so far, there is great variety in cultural practices surrounding illness, healing, death and dying. Use the links below to explore these concepts.

Medical Anthropology and Ethnomedicine
Anthropologists have long been interested in how cultures view and respond to illness and disease. The focus of these studies varies from an ecological focus that looks at the health consuquences of humans interacting with their environment and patterns of disease to the impact of cultural practices on health and the various health systems that have been created across the globe (Dettwyler 2011).

Medical Anthropology: Society for Medical Anthropology's statement on medical anthropology

Medical Anthropology: How Illness is Traditionally Perceived and Cured around the World

Death &amp; Dying
Most of the earliest anthropological studies of death and dying focused on ritual in accordance with the theoretical focus of the time--the structural-functional approach. "Postmortem rituals were seen as mechanism by which the social group alleviated the disruptive effects of the death of an individual and brought the social group together into a functioning unit again" (Glascock 1996: 313). The norms of the anthropologists themselves often interferred with studying the process of dying; it was seen as too personal of an experience and intrusive to study dying.The two articles listed below outline the anthropological approach to studying death and dying as well as the rituals that surround these two processes.

Anthropology of Death

Rituals of Death: a short article highlighting a few funerary rituals

How Death Imitates Life: Cultural Influences on Conceptions of Death and Dying: an article with a more psychological perspective

Cultural Practices

You can explore different death and funerary practices around the world by visiting the sites below. Be aware that the quality of information is variable as some are academic sites and some are not.

Understanding Cultural Issues in Death: this site was created for use by educators and crisis response teams in order to better prepare them to help children, but has an interesting list of cultural practices

Cross-Cultural Beliefs, Ceremonies, and Rituals Surrounding the Death of a Loved One: not strictly anthropological, but an interesting study; you won't be able to read the whole study unless you create a free account

Death in Cultures around the World: this site lists death practices from a variety cultures around the world

10 Extraordinary Burial Ceremonies: a magazine article highlighting a few burial practices that are quite different than the norm in the United States