Individualism vs. Communalismin Health

ANTH 3301Health, Healing & Ethics

Prof. Smith-Morris

Individualism / Communalism

• Binary opposition between individualism and communalism

• Individualism: person-centered view of morality and the world

• Communalism: group-focused view of morality and an integrated world

Individualism / Communalism

• Discourses on human rights– IDHR– ICESCR– ICCPR

• Legal focus on patient autonomy– Four Principles Approach

Key termsUniversal Declaration of Human Rights

Every man and woman Born free and equal Dignity Reason and conscience Regardless off Freedom and safety Slavery Torture Legal protection, Fair and public trial Jail or Exile Innocent until proven guilty Privacy Movement Freedom from persecution The right to marry and have a family Property Thought and religion Vote for your government Develop Work, fair wage, reasonable hours A decent standard of living Education Respect the social order necessary for protection of rights (yours and others)

Key termsInternational Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights

• Highest attainable standard of health• Work• Social security• Adequate food, clothing, housing• Education• To enjoy the benefits of scientific progress

and its applications• Solidarity Rights

Key termsInternational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

• Life • Liberty • Security of Person• Freedom of Movement• Torture • Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or

Punishment• Arbitrary Arrest and Detention

Where society intrudes on the individual:

• Public health campaigns• Laws that restrict rights• Schooling• Roads, airports, public

utilities• GMO’s, cash crops (e.g.,

corn and meat)

Where synergies and dependencies exist:

• Social capital and networks• Organ and blood banks• Taxation and welfare

Individualism / Communalism

Exercise #2:Social Capital Interviews

Exercise #1:List Expansion

Interests of Medical Anthropology

• Person as vehicle• Transmission of culture• Person engaged as critical agent• Kuczewski (anthropological approach to the Common Morality)

• Community Consent/Participatory Models – Smith-Morris article– Gruenbaum article

Exercise #3:Visiting Hours/Rules

Poles on a Continuum

• Erasure of community in certain contemporary practices of biomedicine

Perspectives on the Person

Western Philosophical TraditionsKlukohn and Strodtbeck (1961)• Individualist-collectivist continuum as a

measure of cultural variabilityMarcel Mauss (1938)• Person as roleMarilyn Strathern (1988)• Indivisibility and divisibility

Impacts of the Polarized Conception

1. Rights not to choose abridged2. Biopsychosocial

(psychoneuroimmunological) harm3. Medicalization of ignorance (sterlization of

context)4. Epidemics of individual choice

Globesity: Fat’s New Frontier