Glossary of Terms

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Select the first letter of the word you are seeking from the list above
to jump to the appropriate section of the glossary or scroll down to it

  Return to Last Page     Return to Menu  

- A -

acupuncture  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
a traditional Chinese medical system for curing disease and relieving pain by inserting needles into a patient's skin at key points to stimulate them.  The stimulation is intended to return the body to balance in terms of the "flow of energy" (chi click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced in Chinese).
AIDS  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.  This is the last stage of the disease caused by HIV.  The immune system fails to function adequately and the patient usually succumbs to cancer, pneumonia, or other serious diseases.
autoimmune disease  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
a disorder of an individual's immune system which causes it to attack his or her own organs or tissues.  Rheumatoid arthritis, insulin-dependent diabetes, and lupus erythematosus are examples.  The symptoms of allergies are also autoimmune disorders but are triggered by external stimuli.  The serious autoimmune diseases are more common in women than in men.
Back to Top

- B -

bewitching   click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
using magical acts and/or the assistance of supernatural beings to cause something to occur.  Bewitching is an integral part of witchcraft.
Back to Top

- C -

cholera  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
a severe bacterial infection in the intestines that causes profuse diarrhea and vomiting.  It results in rapid dehydration and death if not aggressively treated by rehydration and antibiotics.  The bacteria responsible for this disease (Vibrio cholerae) usually enters the body by drinking contaminated water.
contagious magic  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
magic that is based on the principle that things or persons once in contact can afterward influence each other.  In other words, there is a permanent relationship between an individual and any part of his or her body.  As a consequence, believers must take special precautions with their hair, fingernails, teeth, clothes, and feces.  If anyone obtained these objects, magic could be performed on them which would cause the person they came from to be affected.
culture bound syndrome
a disease that has a very limited distribution around the world due to the unique sets of environmental circumstances and cultural practices that cause it to occur.  koro, kuru, and Widigo psychosis are examples.
curandero  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced   (female: curandera click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced)
a Latin American folk curer.  Cuanderos believe that they have received a divine calling to their profession, and they may have direct contact with the spirit world.  They usually apprentice for years under an older curandero.  In Mexico and Central America, there are curandero generalists and specialists.  Yerberos click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced are knowledgeable about herbs.  Parteras click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced are midwifes.  Sabadoros click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced are specialists in massaging patients.  Curanderos may also specialize in particular kinds of illness--e.g., curandero de aire click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced, etc.
Back to Top

- D -

developed nation

a nation that is relatively wealthy and usually industrialized.  Most of the people in developed nations have adequate access to food, electricity, fossil fuels, education, and medicine with the consequence that their lives are materially more comfortable and their life spans are significantly longer than those in underdeveloped nation.  The United States, Canada, most of Europe, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand are developed nations.
disease vector
an intermediate host and/or disease transmitting organism for a contagious disease.  Mosquitoes, fleas, lice, ticks, flies, and even snails are common disease vectors.
divination  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
a magical procedure by which the cause of a particular event or the future is determined.
dysentery  pronounce the word
a severe bacterial or amoebic infection of the intestines which results in frequent diarrhea (sometimes with blood and mucus), abdominal pain, and fatigue.  The bacterial form of dysentery is usually rapid and severe in the onset of symptoms causing significant dehydration.  In contrast, the amoebic form usually develops more slowly and becomes chronic.  Treatment usually includes drugs to stop diarrhea as well as antibiotics and/or toxins to kill the bacteria or amoebas.  If not treated, amoebic dysentery can eventually result in death.
Back to Top

- E -

 

endemic  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced

a disease that is always present in a community, usually at a low, more or less constant frequency.  Malaria, arthritis, and high blood pressure are examples.  See hyperendemic.

epidemic  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced

 
a disease that is usually highly contagious but is not always present in a community.  Epidemic diseases appear, rise rapidly in the number of cases, and then decline or even disappear.  Measles, influenza, and the plague are examples of epidemic diseases.  They usually appear seasonally as a result of changing human interaction patterns and changes in the environment.  See pandemic.

 epidemiology  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced

the field of medical research that studies the causes of diseases and how to cure or control them.  Epidemiologists also track the frequency and geographic distribution of diseases over time.  In addition, they study the causal relationships between diseases. 

ethnocentrism  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced

the feeling that your own group's cultural traditions and values are correct and superior to all others.  This is usually coupled with a generalized dislike and even contempt for people who have other cultural traditions.   Ethnocentrism is universal in that all people around the world are ethnocentric to some degree.

 ethnopharmacology  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced

the scientific study of traditional uses of plants and other organisms for medical purposes.  Ethnopharmacology is a specialization within ethnobiology, which is an interdisciplinary field of research carried out by people trained in cultural anthropology, biology, and medicine.
Back to Top

- F - 

Back to Top

- G -

Back to Top

- H -

HIV  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
Human Immunodeficiency Virus.  This is a class of viruses that can cause AIDS.  It is spread from person to person via blood transfusions, blood products, sexual intercourse, and breast milk.  HIV is a retrovirus, which is to say there usually is a delay of years between acquiring the virus and the first symptoms of AIDS.
humoral pathology  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
a naturalistic medical system based on the idea that our bodies have four important fluids or humors--blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. Each humor is thought to have its own "complexion."  Blood is hot and wet.  Phlegm is cold and wet.  Black bile is cold and dry.  Yellow bile is hot and dry.  These complexions have nothing to do with actual temperature and humidity.  In addition to bodily fluids, three internal organs are considered highly important in humoral pathology.  Each one has its own characteristic complexion.  The heart is dry and cold.  The brain is wet and cold.  The liver is hot and wet.  Specific forms of illnesses, medicines, foods, and most natural objects also have specific complexions.  Curing an illness involves discovering the complexion imbalance and rectifying it. 
hyperendemic  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
an endemic disease present at a continuously high frequency within a population. 
hypothesis  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
a tentative explanation for a set of observable or measurable facts that is tested using the scientific method.
Back to Top

- I - 

indigenous world-view
a world-view in which it is believed that humans are not separate from nature and the supernatural world.  Living creatures and non-living objects in nature as well as supernatural beings are thought to be human-like in their motivations, feelings, and interactions.
Back to Top

- J -

Back to Top

- K -

kinship   click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
culturally defined relationships between individuals who are commonly thought of as having family ties.  Kinship is based on marriage, descent, and, occasionally, fictive relationships as well.
koro  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
an irrational perception that one's prominent sexual body parts are withdrawing into the body and subsequently being lost.  In the case of men, the concern is that their penis and testes are shrinking.  For women, the focus is on the perceived shrinking of the vulva and nipples.  In both cases it is a fear of the loss of masculinity or femininity followed by premature death.  Koro is traditionally believed to be caused by "unhealthy sex" (e.g., masturbation or sex with prostitutes).  It also thought to be caused by "tainted" foods.  Koro is found in China and areas of Southeast Asia where Chinese culture has diffused (especially Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore).
kuru   click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
a fatal disease caused by prions that was found among the South Foré click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced people of the eastern New Guinea Highlands.  The symptoms include palsy, contracted face muscles, and the loss of motor control resulting in the inability to walk and eventually even eat.  Kuru victims become progressively emaciated.  Death almost always occurs within 6-12 months of the onset of symptoms.  This disease was spread among the South Foré as a result of cannibalism.  Kuru is a variant of Kreutzfeld-Jacob disease in humans as well as scrapies and mad cow disease in livestock and some wild animals.
kwashiorkor   click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
a severe disease of infants and young children caused by consistently inadequate consumption of protein and specific vitamins and minerals (Vitamins A and E as well as zinc and selenium).  Children with kwashiorkor usually have distended bellies due to edema (i.e., fluid retention) as well as very slender arms and legs due to low muscle mass and fat.  Their skin often flakes off leaving pink patches and their hair can become less curly and lose its dark coloration or even fall out.  Kwashiorkor usually is accompanied by fatigue, apathy, and a significant reduction in the immune system which leaves the child open to infection by other diseases.  Kwashiorkor may cause death if untreated.  Survivors often are stunted in their growth.  Kwashiorkor is most common among the poor in third world nations in which the diet primarily consists of cereals.  Children with kwashiorkor usually have been weaned by their mothers too early.
Back to Top

- L -

large-scale society
a society with cities, industry, intensive agriculture, and a complex international economy.  Such societies have socio-economic classes and a government with hierarchies of officials.  The importance of kinship is diminished in comparison to small-scale societies.
Back to Top

- M -

machismo  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
the Spanish and Latin American ideal of men being confident, strong, dignified, brave, overtly masculine, and sexually active. This ideal of a macho click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced, or "real man", was brought to the New World from Spain and Portugal. Its ultimate origin is probably to be found in the Islamic cultural traditions of North Africa that heavily influenced the culture of the Spanish Peninsula until the end of the 1400's A.D.
magic  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
using ritual formulas to compel or influence supernatural beings or powers to act in certain ways for good or evil purposes.  By performing certain magical acts in a particular way, crops might be improved, game herds replenished, illness cured or avoided, animals and people made fertile.  This is very different from television and stage "magic" that depends on slight-of-hand tricks and contrived illusions rather than supernatural power.
malaria  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
a group of similar life threatening diseases found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions of the world.  Malaria is caused by any of four different microorganisms called plasmodia (Plasmodium falciparum, vivax, ovale, and malariae).  These single-celled organisms are transmitted from person to person by anopheles mosquitoes as they extract blood.  Symptoms of malaria include high fever and sometimes fatal irregularities of the brain, liver, kidney, and/or blood.  There are at least 100,000,000 new cases of malaria reported annually around the world.  Approximately 1,500,000 people die from it each year.  Most of them are children--3,000 children die of malaria every day.
mal de ojo  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced    (the "evil eye")
a kind of personalistic illness in Latin America and parts of the Mediterranean Basin resulting from soul loss.  The cause is traditionally thought to be a strong person staring at a weak individual.  The eyes of the strong person drain the power and/or soul from the weak one.  Proof that this has occurred to someone is that he or she cries inconsolably without a cause, has fitful sleep, diarrhea, vomiting, and/or a fever.  It is thought that powerful people can cause this draining of the soul intentionally or unintentionally.  In traditional Mexican and Central American culture, women, babies, and young children are thought of as being weak, while  men as well as rich and politically powerful people of either gender are strong.  People who believe in the existence of mal de ojo are likely to seek out a curandero to cure it.
medical system
a system of explaining, diagnosing, and curing illness.  There are two broad types of medical systems in the world--naturalistic and personalistic.
modal personality  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced

the most common personality type within a society.

Back to Top

- N -

naturalistic medical system
a medical system that explains illness as being due to impersonal, mechanistic causes in nature that can be potentially understood and cured by the application of the scientific method of discovery.  Typical causes accepted in naturalistic medical systems include organic breakdown or deterioration, obstruction, injury, imbalance, malnutrition, and parasites.  Students learning to be doctors or nurses in medical schools throughout the modern world are taught this kind of naturalistic explanation.  However, there are other kinds of naturalistic medical systems also in use today.  In Latin America, many people still also rely on humoral pathology to explain and cure their illnesses.  This is especially true in rural areas.  See personalistic medical system.
Back to Top

- O -

Onchocerciasis  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced    (river blindness)
blindness caused by a small parasitic worm called Onchocerca volvulus.  It is transmitted to humans by the bite of black Simulium flies.  These flies must breed in fast-moving rivers and streams.  Hence, this common tropical American and African disease is known as "river blindness".  Onchocerciasis can now be treated with a drug.
Back to Top

- P -

pandemic  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
an epidemic that becomes unusually widespread and even global in its reach.
paranoia  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
a mental disorder characterized by a delusion usually about oneself.  Typically the delusion will involve an irrational sense of persecution, grandeur, jealousy, or love.
pathological  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
referring to a structural or functional change in the body resulting from a disease.  A deviation from normal health.
personalistic medical system
a medical system that explains illness as being due to acts or wishes of other people or supernatural beings and forces.  There is no room for accidents.  Adherents to personalistic medical systems believe that the causes and cures of illness are not to be found only in the natural world.  Curers usually must use supernatural means to understand what is wrong with their patients and to return them to health.  Typical causes of illness in personalistic medical systems include intrusion of foreign objects into the body by supernatural means, spirit possession, loss, or damage, and bewitching.  Most of the non-Western world traditionally accepted a personalistic explanation for illness.  Today, it is mostly found among people in small-scale societies and some subcultures of larger nations.  See naturalistic medical system.
placebo  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
a harmless medical treatment that should have no effect on a patient's disease but actually improves his or her condition as a result of the belief that it will help.  For example, a doctor could give patients harmless sugar pills and tell them that they are a powerful medicine.  This placebo may actually make some of them feel better and even help them recover from their disease.  It is assumed that the belief in the efficacy of a treatment can reduce the production of stress hormones and improve the immune system in some cases.  The kind of placebo that works is highly culture related. 
plague  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
a life threatening disease caused by the bacterium Yerisinia pestis.  This microorganism is usually spread by fleas as they extract blood from their human or other animal hosts.  Symptoms of bubonic plague begin with a high fever and a headache followed by the appearance of painful swollen areas in the groin and sometimes under the arms or elsewhere on the body.  Usually half of bubonic plague victims die if not treated with antibiotics.  Pneumonic plague is more severe and almost always causes the death of untreated people.  It is characterized by pneumonia-like symptoms and coughing up bloody phlegm.  The plague has caused several major devastating pandemics, especially in the 14th century A.D.  when up to 3/4 of the population of infected regions in Europe and Western Asia died of it.
prion  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
a protein that has the ability to cause the cells that it invades to repeatedly duplicate it.  Prions are responsible for causing kuru and other similar diseases.  Apparently, prions are not effectively attacked by their host's immune system nor can they be killed with existing antibiotics, extreme heat, cold, or other normally lethal conditions.  The word prion comes from "proteinaceous infectious particle."
Back to Top

- Q -

Back to Top

- R -

rickets disease  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
a disease of the skeletal system in which the bones are softened and often bent as a result of vitamin D deficiency in the diet that hinders the normal development of bones and teeth.  Rickets most frequently affects malnourished children.
Back to Top

- S -

schistosomiasis  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
a tropical disease that begins initially with an itchy rash and flu-like symptoms including high fever and pain.  Over time, the intestines and bladder develop bleeding ulcers and scar tissue.  Death can result from kidney failure, bladder tumors, and/or liver abnormalities.  Schistosomiais is caused by an infestation of any of three species of flukes that live in slow moving rivers, canals, or lakes that have been polluted with human feces.  In its microscopic tadpole-like stage, the parasite enters through the skin of people when they swim or bathe in the water.  The larval stage of these flukes live in an aquatic snail.  These snails are an essential disease vector.
scientific method
the method of learning what is unknown in the natural world by formulating an hypothesis to explain observable or measurable facts and then collecting data through experiments and further observation to answer research questions based on the hypothesis.  If the results of the tests support the hypothesis, it may become a theory.  If the tests do not support the hypothesis, new hypotheses are developed and tested.  The scientific method is the objective method by which old assumptions are challenged and scientific knowledge grows.
shaman  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
a person who is not part of an organized religion and is in direct contact with the spirit world, usually through a trance state.  A shaman has spirit helpers at his or her command to carry out curing, divining, and bewitching.  Shamanistic power is acquired individually, usually in physical and/or mental solitude and isolation from other humans.  Spirits or some other supernatural entities are revealed to the shaman and he or she learns how to control them.  Training by older shamans usually occurs to help the apprentice shaman understand and use his or her powers.
small-scale society
a society of a few dozen to several thousand people who live by foraging wild foods, herding domesticated animals, or non-intensive horticulture on the village level.  Such societies lack cities as well as complex economies and governments.  Kinship relationships are usually highly important in comparison to the common pattern of large-scale societies.
susto  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced    (literally "fright or sudden fear" in Spanish)
a kind of personalistic illness found among some Latinos in the United States and parts of Latin America.  The presumed cause is the loss of one's soul due to incidents that have a destabilizing effect on an individual (e.g., being thrown from a horse, having a nighttime encounter with a ghost, or being in a social situation that causes fear or anger).  Typical symptoms of susto are restlessness during sleep as well as being listless and weak when awake, lack an appetite, and little interest in one's own personal appearance.  Susto is also known as perdida de la sombra click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced (literally "loss of the shadow" in Spanish).
sympathetic magic  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
magic based on the principle that "like produces like."  For instance, whatever happens to an image of someone will also happen to them.  Sympathetic magic is also referred to as "imitative" magic.
Back to Top

- T -

theory  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
a set of facts or principles that explain phenomena in the natural world.  For instance the heliocentric theory in astronomy proposes that the sun is at the center of our solar system and that the earth and other planets revolve around it.
third world
Nations that are underdeveloped.
Back to Top

- U -

underdeveloped nation

a nation in which most of the people are persistently poor due to the way they are integrated into the world economic system.  They usually provide cheap raw materials and labor for the rich, developed nations and purchase their manufactured goods at high prices.  The economies of underdeveloped societies are largely dependent on the richer nations.  Bangladesh and Guatemala are examples of underdeveloped, or third world, nations.  See developed nation.
Back to Top

- V -

Back to Top

- W -

western world
those nations dominated by European derived culture.  The Western World today includes Europe, the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, and a few other countries.
Windigo psychosis  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
a culture bound syndrome reported occasionally among the Northern Algonkian click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced language group of Indians (Chippewa click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced, Ojibwa click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced, and Cree click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced) living around the Great Lakes of Canada and the United States.  Windigo psychosis usually developed in the winter when families were isolated by heavy snow for months in their cabins and had inadequate food supplies.  The initial symptoms of this form of mental illness were usually poor appetite, nausea, and vomiting.  Subsequently, the individual would develop a characteristic delusion of being transformed into a Windigo monster.  These supernatural beings eat human flesh.  People who have Windigo psychosis increasingly see others around them a being edible.  At the same time they have an exaggerated fear of becoming cannibals.
witchcraft  click this icon to hear the preceding term pronounced
actions involving magic or supernatural powers usually undertaken for the purpose of doing harm.  This is a limited anthropological definition that does not describe the activities of modern Western European and North American so-called witches or Wicca.  The latter are members of an organized religion.
world-view
the complex of motivations, perceptions, and beliefs that we internalize and that strongly affect how we interact with other people and things in nature.  World-view  is a set of feelings and basic attitudes about the world rather than clearly formulated opinions about it.  These feelings and attitudes are mostly learned early in life and are not readily changed later.
Back to Top

- X -

Back to Top

- Y -

Back to Top

- Z -

Back to Top

This page was last updated on Friday, November 04, 2005.
Copyright © 2002-2005 by Dennis O'Neil. All rights reserved.