La antropología médica en México. Situación y perspectiva

Abstract

This paper gives a general overview of the development of medical anthropology in Mexico. It presents some advances on medical anthropology. It also addresses the difficulties in its construction as a field of study because it deals with conceptions, representations, and practices related to human doing. The paper borrows from the contributions of sociology. history, medicine: and botany. From the analysis of a number of aspects emerges a complex picture of the development of medical anthropology. It includes the account of spanish friars and indigenous people on original Indian practices. The paper emphasizes the always tense relation between folk medical practices and scientific medicine; the study of disease and therapeutic practices; the rural and urban issue, extension efforts of different institutions, theoretical innovations, the different epochs in the development of specialities, and the features of different research teams. The paper ends pointing the need of the progressive integration of medical anthropology as a field of study and higher multidisciplinarity. This is necessary in order to account for new explanations and practical solutions to the complex problems related with health and disease