A Companion to Medical Anthropology. Группа авторов

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A Companion to Medical Anthropology - Группа авторов


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programs and need for programs that serves populations with disabilities; (11) compare the relative importance of different types of disabling conditions in different cultures; and (12) create a general description of the place and meaning of disabilities and disability programs in local cultures. The practical aspects of the design required conducting the research at a number of different centers around the world that have varying levels of experience with qualitative and quantitative research methods. The methods had to be easy to use, inexpensive, comprehensive, and capable of producing defensible results. The ICIDH CAR model was designed to address a consistent issue for multisite cross-cultural applied research. The research requires a standardized sampling framework that does not place an extreme burden on the various centers. We used qualitative sampling procedures for the bulk of the CAR study, except in those cases where statistical power needs dictated a quantitative sampling approach. The ethnographic sampling framework was comprised of selected individuals who were especially knowledgeable about their culture, rather than randomly selected individuals who might not be able to contribute substantively to the study (cf. Johnson 1990a,b; Schensul et al. 1999). The process appropriately differs from probabilistic (forms of random) sampling due to the goals of the study, especially the need to interview individuals who are cultural experts and who have substantive knowledge in the area of disablement. The final results of the study and application was a consensual, multi-national, revision of the old disabilities classification system into a new system for assessing functioning in cultural context, which is a significant paradigm shift for both WHO and the disabilities communities. (Ustun et al. 2001).

      Rapid Assessment as a Methodological Framework: Combining Emergent Theory, Midrange Theory, and Systematic Ethnographic Design

      ETHICS3 AND APPLIED MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: A COMFORTABLE FIT

      Applied medical anthropologists face two complex, interwoven, yet frequently dichotomized ethical challenges that must be negotiated, addressed, and jointly accommodated. These two challenges are the ethics of professional praxis and the ethics of conducting cross-cultural research on health, healing, and medicine within a global multicultural context. The first challenge is to construct and conduct research in an ethical manner by successfully anticipating, addressing, and appropriately applying the numerous, often vague (sometimes culture bound), contradictory, and challenging disciplinary, national, and international ethical rules, guidelines, and treaty obligations surrounding the conduct of science and research. The history of human research is unfortunately littered with the cultural debris of harmful actions on the part of the researchers and their sponsors. Following the principles, guidelines, and laws that protect people from unethical research is a critical requirement for protecting humans from harm at the hands of researchers. An equally important complementary ethical challenge for anthropologists is to conduct their professional activities (teaching, applied practice, and knowledge dissemination) ethically within and across competing social and cultural boundaries. Anthropologists must be particularly ethically vigilant when they are using anthropological theory, knowledge, or praxis that might be a direct (and sometimes even indirect) cause of harm for vulnerable people. People’s lives can be impacted by what anthropologists say and what anthropologists do in their personal and professional capacity.

      Anthropologists have been intimately involved in the public debates and explorations of the ethics of research ever since the emergence of the disciple in the late 1800s, when much of the ethical elements of the debate revolved around the meaning of evolution, the relationship of science to theology, and the nature of “civilization” to other forms of social complexity, as opposed to other cultural conditions. Since that time, the discussion of ethics in anthropology has consistently paralleled the concerns, explorations, and debates focused on science in general, on the impact of changing technology and globalization for all cultures around the world, on war and conflict, and on the emerging ethical concerns in the other social sciences (such as deception or sociobiology). One of the first public explorations of ethics in anthropological research is the American Anthropological Association’s participation in the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights


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