Medical Anthropology
This ancient Greek physician, called the “father of medicine,” has a doctors’ oath named after him.
Who is Hippocrates?
First domesticated in Asia, this grain is a staple food for about half the world.
What is rice?
Ancient Egyptians wrote using this system of picture symbols.
What are hieroglyphics?
Humans share about 98–99% of our DNA with this ape.
What is the chimpanzee?
The disorientation people feel when adjusting to an unfamiliar culture is called this.
What is culture shock?
Practiced in China for thousands of years, this treatment inserts thin needles at specific points on the body.
What is acupuncture?
The shift from foraging to farming about 12,000 years ago is called this.
What is the Neolithic (Agricultural) Revolution?
Ancient Greeks believed their gods lived on top of this mountain.
What is Mount Olympus?
This continent is considered the birthplace of humanity.
What is Africa?
Rio de Janeiro is famous for this festival before Lent, full of parades and samba.
What is Carnival?
In Ayurveda, India’s traditional medicine system, this yellow spice is used to fight inflammation.
What is turmeric?
Most adults worldwide can’t fully digest this sugar found in milk.
What is lactose?
Archaeologists use this method, based on a decaying isotope, to date organic remains up to about 50,000 years old.
What is radiocarbon (carbon-14) dating?
Found in Ethiopia in 1974, this famous fossil skeleton was named after a Beatles song.
Who is Lucy?
Judging another culture by the standards of your own is called this.
What is ethnocentrism?
The book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down follows a Hmong family and American doctors clashing over a child with this condition.
What is epilepsy?
This Japanese word names the “fifth taste,” a savory flavor.
What is umami?
Differences in grave goods between burials are often read as evidence of this kind of social inequality.
What is social stratification?
Most people of non-African descent carry 1–2% of their DNA from this extinct human species.
What are Neanderthals?
Associated with Franz Boas, this principle holds that a culture should be understood on its own terms.
What is cultural relativism?
Term for an illness recognized only within a particular culture, like susto in Latin America.
What is a culture-bound syndrome?
Potatoes were first grown in this mountain range.
What are the Andes?
This Pacific Northwest ceremony, where hosts gave away wealth to gain status, was banned in Canada from 1885 to 1951.
What is the potlatch?
The “obstetrical dilemma” is the tension between big-brained babies and a narrow pelvis shaped by this trait.
What is bipedalism?
Anthropologists use this term for ceremonies marking a move from one life stage to another, like a graduation or wedding.
What is a rite of passage?