3. CONTENTS
• ANTHROPOLOGY AN OVER VIEW
• DEFINITIONS
• CLASSIFICATIONS
• CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
• PUBLIC HEALTH SIGNIFICANCE
• CONCLUSIONS
• REFERENCES
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4. INTRODUCTION
• Anthropology is one of the oldest fields of human study.
• It is concerned with all dimensions of humanity, like
evolutionary, biophysical, sociopolitical, economic,
cultural and psychological, hence strives to understand
man and his activities in totality.
• Anthropology being the study of humanity and human
kind, in all places, climates and times, often defined as
being “holistic.”
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5. • Cultural Anthropology presents the social science and
humanities facets of anthropology in contrast to its
biologic facet, physical anthropology.
• Cultural anthropologist looks at human behavior
comparatively and examines many different systems of
customs throughout the world; seeks to explain their
origin and development, weighs their likeliness and
contrasts.
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6. DEFINITIONS
• Anthropos + logos (Greek) – Anthropology
• Anthropo – Human; Logos – Science
• Jacobs And Stern: Anthropology is the scientific study
of the physical, social and cultural development and
behavior of human beings since their appearance on
the earth.
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7. DEFINITIONS
Culture :Learned behavior which has been socially acquired
Cultural anthropology
• The scientific study of the development of human cultures
based on ethnologic, ethnographic, linguistic, social, and
psychological data and methods of analysis.
• A specialty that studies the creative achievements of
societies, especially those passed on through later
generations.
• Also called culturology.
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10. • Cultural Anthropology - encompasses three
broad topics
Ethnography/Ethnology
Linguistic anthropology
Archaeological anthropology
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11. ETHNOLOGY
• It is a comparative study of a culture
• Ethnology ( from the Greek ethnos meaning “habit,
custom, convention”) that compares and analyzes
the origins, distribution, technology, religion,
language and social structure of the ethnic racial
and/or national, divisions of humanity.
• It identifies the patterns in human behavior.
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12. LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY
• Is the study of language. Explores the social and
cultural foundations of language, while
examining how social and cultural formations
are grounded in linguistic practices.
• Fields of linguistics:
Structural
Historical and
Sociolinguistics
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13. ARCHAEOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
• It is the study of past culture and civilizations and uses
their remains as the principal source of information.
• Study of recovered or excavated bones and teeth which
is used to reconstruct human and non humans to
understand their evolution and the excavated materials
which explains about the cultural aspects.
• .
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14. SUB FIELDS OF CULTURAL
ANTHROPOLOGY
• Human ecology
• Political anthropology
• Economic anthropology
• Psychological
anthropology
• Legal anthropology
•Urban anthropology
•Educational anthropology
•Applied anthropology
•Women's anthropology
•Medical anthropology
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15. CONCEPTS OF CULTURE
ETHNOCENTRISM
• The widespread human tendency to perceive
the ways of doing things and beliefs in one’s
culture as normal, superior and natural and that
of others as strange, inferior, and possibly un-
natural.
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16. CULTURAL RELATIVISM
• Views that cultural traditions must be understood
within the context of a particular society’s responses
to problems and opportunities.
• It counters ethnocentrism.
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17. ETHNO-CULTURAL IDENTITY
• The extent to which an individual endorses and
practices a way of life associated with a particular
cultural tradition.
• One’s chosen group from vast intra group diversity
is associated with ethno cultural identity.
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18. ACCULTURATION
• It implies a mutual influence in which elements of
two culture mingle and merge, one of which is
subordinate to another while maintaining their
identity.
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19. LEVELS OF ACCULTURATION
LEVEL SIGNIFICANCE
BICULTURAL ONE WHO FUNCTIONS EQUALLY WELL IN THE
DOMINENT CULTURE ,IN HIS OR HER OWN CULTURE
TRADITIONAL ONE WHO HOLDS MOST OF THE CHARACTERISTICS
OF HIS OR HER OWN CULTURE
MARGINAL ONE WHO DOESNOT HAVE THE CONTACT WITH THE
CULTURE OF ORIGIN
ACCULTURED ONE WHO HAS GIVEN UP THE TRAITS OF CULTURE OF
ORIGIN AND HAS ADOPTED THE TRAITS OF THE
DOMINENT CULTURE
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20. TYPES OF ACCULTURATION
• Group foreign origin acculturation- intake of
others cultures trait. It is adapted to others for
modernizing and advancing it through the
inflow of technology
• Transculturation-often occurs in immigrants,
for whom transculturation is difficult due to
lack of precedents in the family.
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21. • Native origin acculturation –A child may learn
one or more traditions from birth usually in
family particularly by parents.
• Cultural appropriation –Is the adoption of
some specific elements like music and
art,religion,behaviour,language
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22. • Cultural imperialism –It is the practice of
promoting the culture or language of one
nation with another.
• Interactive acculturation –It is the attempt to
explain the acculturation process within the
framework of state policies and through the
dynamic interplay of host communities.
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23. FACTORS THAT RESIST CHANGE IN THE
CULTURE
• Social factors - Race, ethnicity, gender.
• Cultural boundaries - Relative values, customs,
language and food habits and clothing.
• Fear of disrupts in existing social and economic
relationships.
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25. SUPERNATURAL CAUSES
i. Wrath of Gods and Goddess
e.g. small pox and chicken pox
ii. Breach of taboo, e.g. venereal diseases
iii. Past sins: leprosy and TB
iv. Evil eye: Children susceptible to evil eye.
v. Spirit or ghost intrusion: Epilepsy
1.CONCEPT OF ETIOLOGY AND CURE
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26. PHYSICAL CAUSES
i. Effects of weather: Exposure to heat during
summer is responsible for an attack of loo (heat
stroke).Remedies are application of oil or ghee on
soles of feet
ii. Impure Water &Blood: Impure water is
associated with disease.eg :Boils ans scabies.(eating
neem leaf)
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27. 2. ENVIRONMENTAL SANITATION
i. Disposal of human excreta: use open fields for
defecation is considered harmless.
- Pollutes water and soil, promotes fly breeding.
ii. Disposal of wastes: the solid waste is invariably
thrown in front of the houses where it is polluted,
accumulated and decomposed, which are used as
manure.
iii. Water supply: Common tanks and ponds are
used for bath&washing and also as source of
drinking water. 27
28. i. Vegetarianism :Is given a place of honor in Hindu
society. Some wont use onion & garlic.
ii. Concept of hot and cold food
- meat, fish, eggs and jaggery -generate heat in the
body.
- curds, milk, vegetables and lemon- cool the body.
Muslims follow fasting during Ramzan and Hindus on
several occasions.
iii Avoidance of certain food items (pregnancy,
lactating mothers )
iv Drinks and drugs :During certain occasions.
3. FOOD HABITS
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29. 4. MOTHER AND CHILD HEALTH
• Marriage is universal in Indian society and the
family is incomplete with out the birth of a male
child.
• Certain good practices - prolonged breast
feeding, oil-bath, massage and exposure to sun.
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30. BAD CUSTOMS
• Foods like egg ,meat ,fish ,milk are forbidden
during pregnancy
• Most of the deliveries are conducted by
traditional untrained women, to whom villagers
have greater faith
• Child is not put into the breast feeding during
the first three days of birth- belief, ‘colostrums is
harmful’. Instead the child is put on water and
sugar solution as a custom.
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31. 5. PERSONAL HYGIENE
• Bathing
Practice of oil bath is a good Indian custom.
- Use a paste consisting of gram, mustard oil and
turmeric powder and rubbing it on the body
before bath.
• Not wearing Footwear-
• Transmission of hook worm diseases associated with
bare feet – village.
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32. ORAL HYGIENE PRACTICES
• Keeping oral cavity clean - Culturally ingrained
practice in India.
• Mouth cleaning - Is done in the morning after
getting up as a daily ritual.
• Copious gargling - With water and cleaning
teeth and tongue with various materials is a
custom.
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33. • Hindus :
Brahmins, Priests, clean their teeth using cherry wood,
neem and mango twigs.
• Reciting prayers for about an hour facing rising sun.
• Orthodox Jains clean their teeth using fingers and without
using the brush. This may have a negative impact on their
oral health.
• Muslims :
- Muslims as a part of "Namaz" clean their teeth five times
a day.
•- Use of Meswak stick, tooth picks and gum massaging as
a part of oral hygiene.
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35. Dentifrices:
• Many people in the rural areas and in urban
slums use common salt, charcoal, brick powder,
sand and ash as cleaning materials.
• In long run these produce enamel abrasion,
dentin sensitivity and gingival recession.
• These practices are more of socio-economically
determined.
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36. 6. SEX AND MARRIAGE
• Early marriage- Adjusting problem in joint
families.
• Late marriages- Children born with genetic
disorders.
• Multiple partners- High rate of infectious
• Family decides where to seek healthcare-
whether health care professional, traditional
healer or a neighbour.
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38. Other forms of soft tissue mutilation
• Piercing of lips and perioral soft tissues and the insertion of
materials such as wood, ivory or metal.
• The temporary piercing of orofacial soft tissues for
ceremonial purposes.
• Facial scarring.
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39. OTHER HABITS
Alcohol :
• Alcoholic drinks – Taboo in Muslims and high caste
Hindus.
• Western culture the alcoholic drinks - a reward or as
something glamorous and as a status symbol.
• Frequent among both the sex of the western world.
• These practices increase the incidence of oral cancers
and mental illness.
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40. Tobacco :
• Smoking, Chewable, Sniff forms of tobacco use is
quite common among some of the social class
people.
• Leads to
- Oral cancers.
- Smoking among pregnant women- increases the
incidence of cleft lip and cleft palate in the
developing child and low birth weight child.
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41. PAN CHEWING AS A CUSTOM:
• Offering pan having betel leaf, slaked slime, areca
nut, and catechu is a way of welcoming the guests in
North Indian states like Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh,
Maharashtra and West Bengal. Rejecting pan is
taken as an insult.
• This may encourage the people to get into the habit
of chewing pan, which is a proven risk factor for
periodontal diseases, oral sub mucous fibrosis and
oral malignancies.
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42. • The habits of smoking and alcoholism, are
culturally acceptable among some tribal
population. Here, males and females have
almost the equal frequency of these habits.
• The habit of reverse smoking is highly prevalent
among the fishing communities .This increases
the risk of palatal malignancies.
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43. CULTURAL TABOOS IN DENTISTRY
• Miracle cure of toothache – worship sun
• Child born with neonatal teeth – danger to
grandparents
• Extraction – Cause Blindness, loosening of
adjacent teeth.
• Spacing of teeth – Child will become a singer
• If lower tooth exfoliates throw it into the roof
,upper tooth underneath the floor(upper-
healthy downwards ,lower- healthy upwards)
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44. CULTURAL TABOOS IN DENTISTRY
• Keeping baby tooth below pillow ,tooth fairy
comes during night and takes the tooth
• Keep baby tooth as a keepsake like will do for
umbilical cord.
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45. BARRIERS
• Cross cultural communication issues
• Multicultural issues
• Different cultural barriers (language, race, caste,
ethnicity, etc.)
• Socio-economic problems
• Lack of cultural competency
• Lack of time and resources
• Inconsistent patient behavior and attitude
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46. PUBLIC HEALTH POINT OF VIEW
• Anthropological understandings of public
health problems such as malaria, HIV/AIDS,
and diabetes,the anthropological design of
public health interventions in areas like
tobacco control and elder care.
• Anthropological evaluations of public health
initiatives such as Safe Motherhood and polio
eradication, anthropological critiques of
public health policies, including neoliberal
health care reforms.
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47. • Anthropologists provide crucial understandings of
public health problems from the perspectives of the
populations in which the problems occur.
• Anthropologists may develop and implement
interventions to address particular public health
problems, often working in collaboration with local
participants.
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48. • Anthropologists also work as evaluators, examining
the activities of public health institutions and the
successes and failures of public health programs.
• A person may delay seeking dental treatment from a
dentist due to their traditional home remedies. This
can be reduced by the increased effectiveness of
health education and treatment planning for
improving oral health status of the community
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49. CONCLUSION
• Inquiry is what anthropology is about. It is a
search, an investigation into what we are
now, from whence we came and how we got
to be the way we are today.
• Health is a consequence of an individual’s
lifestyle as well as a factor in determining it.
Everyone of us, have our own beliefs and
practices concerning health and disease
irrespective of the area of residence whether
residing in urban or rural areas.
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50. • We have to identify the cultural factors that
are deleterious and beneficial. We, the health
professionals have to discourage the
unhealthy practices though intensive health
education and promote the adoption of
healthy practices.
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51. • Kiyak HA. Age and culture: Influences on oral
health behaviour. Int Dent J 2000 Feb; 43(1): 9-16.
• Riley JL, Gilbert GH. Childhood dental history and
adult dental attitudes and beliefs. Int Dent J 2005
Jun; 55(3): 142-50.
• Chandra Shekar , Raja Babu P. Cultural factors in
Health and Oral health . IJDA 2009; 1(1): 24-30.
• Park .Textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine
,23edition. Banarsidas publishers;jabalpur:2015.
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52. • Saub R , Jaafar N. ADental-Anthropological Study of Health
and Illness Behaviour Among Orang Asli of the Semai
Tribe: The Perspective of Traditional Healers. Med J
Malaysia 2001 ;56 ( 4) : 401-407.
• Anthroglandwelcome.www.anthrogladwelcome.com(assesse
d 23 june)
• Culturalsketch.www.culturalsketchesstudyguide.com(assess
ed 10 july)
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53. “Seek advice from elders
but see the world through the
eyes of a child”
Thank you
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