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biomedical cultures  

Definition

  • A concept in anthropology which highlights the fact that there are competing understandings of disease and illness co-existing along side the medical model. These include lay and folk understandings of illness in the West, as well as those alternative medical practices in developing countries, captured in the phrase ‘medical pluralism’, where an attempt is made to integrate indigenous healing systems with Western biomedicine (Leslie, C. (1980) ‘Medical pluralism in world perspective’, Social Science and Medicine, 14B: 629–42) (lay referral system; shamanism). [Source: The Sage Dictionary of Health and Society; Biomedical Cultures]

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https://concepts.sagepub.com/social-science/concept/biomedical_cultures

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