Michelle Munyikwa // “The secret source of Humor is not joy but sorrow.” — Mark Twain, as quoted in Laughter Out of Place “You know, Michelle,” my senior resident said, in that didactic tone of voice that educators often use when they are about to drop some wisdom, “humor is a mature defense.“ We had…
Category: Medical Anthropology
“Real Doctors Treat More than One Species”: Modeling Medical Creativity
Jane Desmond, PhD // If you stroll the campus of a U.S. College of Veterinary Medicine (back when strolling was allowed in pre-pandemic times) you might spot a T-shirt with a striking message printed in bold lettering across the front: “REAL DOCTORS TREAT MORE THAN ONE SPECIES.” Debates about who is a “real” doctor, what…
Measures of success
Madeleine Mant // Tell me what the measurement is. Tell me why the measurement is important. Ask if it’s okay with me that you take this measurement. I teach Laboratory Methods in Biological Anthropology, an undergraduate course divided into three units: dietary recall and analysis, anthropometry (measurements and proportions of the human body), and accelerometry…
Acknowledged but Unheard: The Absence of Children’s Voices in Water Insecurity
Steven Rhue // Children’s voices are all but absent from research on water insecurity or the condition where access to and benefit from affordable adequate, reliable, and safe water for health and well-being is unobtainable or precarious (Jepson et al.). This body of work has been dominated by the underlying assumption that a child’s experience…
Emotions as Ethnography: The Story Doctor’s Toolbox
Melissa Maldonado-Salcedo// I am always “in my feelings.” I say this unapologetically, and knowing that some Latina women are rendered in popular culture as lacking control of their emotions and impulses. The overlap between these representations and my ethnographic life does not escape me. Empathy, “my gut,” memories, and emotions are all my critical tools…
