Monday, October 29, 2007

More thoughts on Feminism and Medical Anthropology...

I just had a small epiphany. Frequently the problem of many medical anthropologists, myself included, with the standard western biomedical complex is that it tends to lean toward reducing everything to biology.

However, this is precisely the problem with critical feminist theory, in medical anthropology and elsewhere. Feminism leads to a perspective that is entirely too reductionist in nature. I suppose that is the risk you run with any theory, especially critical theories.

People are too tied to their ideas and the motivation behind the development of such theories. But tunnel vision is dangerous in theory and anthropology (esp. medical or applied I think.) People are going to end up missing the big picture...and probably several smaller more nuanced parts of the picture as well.

People are complex, neither biology nor behavior nor culture can be easily reduced by any theory, no matter how hard anyone tries.

1 comment:

Trav said...

That's why biology and behavioral studies need to be integrated but no one is willing to put in the effort.
Maybe it's too much and too varied to be housed under a single theory...