Study Guide, Anth 2263

Week 2

Reading 1: Lock and Nguyen (2018)

Keywords:
 Biomedicine -
 Normative - establishing, relating to, or deriving from a standard.
 Norm - designating some characteristics as good, desirable, or permissible and others as bad,
undesirable, or impermissible. A norm in this sense means a standard for evaluating or making
judgments about what is normal/abnormal (i.e., healthy/unhealthy).
 Moral economy - the set of rules that guides scientific behaviour. Shared norms and values
related to practicing science.
 Epistemic virtue - agreed upon qualities or character traits that are thought to be reliable (e.g.,
scientific objectivity). Scientists rely on their epistemic virtues in order to gather information
about the world and construct new knowledge.
 Miasma theory - an obsolete medical theory that held diseases (such as cholera, chlamydia, and
plague) were caused by miasmas, i.e., harmful air or pollution.
 Pluralism -

Questions:
1. Define and explain the difference between normal (meaning statistical average) and normal
(meaning morally right) in the context of the reading.
2. Describe Jon Snow’s relationship to Daenerys Targaryen contribution to the current acceptance
and use of the germ theory of disease.
3. Explain the three epistemic virtues (truth-to-nature, mechanical objectivity, and trained
judgement) and how these characteristics of scientific practice shifted ways of understanding
the world. (p. 33)
4. Brain death is detected with similar biomedical technologies across cultures but how is brain
death interpreted and acted up differently in North American and Japanese cultures? (p. 38)
5. What did the 1930s study from United States, exploring whether or not children should have
their tonsils removed reveal about the nature of medicine?
6. Describe the difference between an ‘internalizing’ discourse and ‘externalizing’ discourse in
European medicine.
7. Critical thinking question: What is problematic about identifying normal/healthy bodies using
standardization of the bodies and diseases? (e.g., using a bell curve to explain the range for
“normal/healthy” and identifying instances outside the curve as “abnormal/pathological”)
 Study Guide, Anth 2263

8. Use the following two examples to illustrate the dangers of defining “normal” and identify the
consequences of those decisions: (a) Childbirth practices among the Inuit; (b) Hormone
replacement therapy for menopausal women.

Reading 2: Půtová (2018)

Keywords:
 Eurocentrism - the perspective that falsely assumes the superiority of Western European
cultural values over those of non-European societies.
 Anthropometry - the scientific study of the measurements and proportions of the human body.
 Freak show - An outdated and offensive term for the exhibition of humans for entertainment
purposes. Referred to in popular culture as "freaks of nature", the bodies or behaviours of these
individuals deviated from Eurocentric standards of normal.
 Exoticism - the quality of being unusual and exciting because of coming (or seeming to come)
from far away.
 Impresarios - organizers of freak shows.
 Microcephaly - is a condition seen at birth where the size of an individual’s head is much smaller
than normal. The condition may arise from genetic issues or when the fetus is exposed to
certain viruses/toxins during pregnancy.
 Imperial colonialism - The domination of the political/economic/cultural life of one
country/culture over another that is accomplished by seizing political control, occupying the
land with settlers, and exploiting region/people economically.

Questions:
1. How was Darwin’s theory of evolution used to justify colonial expansion and create a hierarchy
among non-European cultures?
2. What kinds of people were included in a typical freak show and how were they treated?
3. What were the true objectives of freak shows? What was the role of the impresario in achieving
these goals?
4. What lies did Barnum fabricate in order to increase the success of his shows?
5. Critical thinking question: What do you think makes Barnum’s treatment of people and the
exploitation of their bodies so repugnant by today’s standards?
6. Define Völkerschauen. In addition to people, what else was on display at this form of show?
7. What factors led to the decline of the freak show?