Modernity and Disease ANTH 151
Modernity A term used to describe the condition of being modern What does modern mean?
The term modernity must be contextualized as it can refer to many periods.
Modernity as Post-Medieval rise of the nation-state industrialization rise of capitalism rise of socialist countries increasing role of science & technology urbanization mass literacy proliferation of mass media
Modern Modernity The Age of Discovery - 1400s - 1600s European expansion looking for trading routes The Renaissance - 1400s - 1700s Change in intellectual life Influenced - philosophy, art, science, music, art... The Enlightenment (Age of Reason) - 1700s & 1800s reform society using reason question ideas based on faith and tradition use the scientific method to advance knowledge
Key Events Invention of the printing press (1440) American Revolution (1775-1783) from British colonies to United States of America French Revolution (1789-1799) from monarchy, aristocracy and religious authority to equality, citizenship, and inalienable rights World War I (1914-1918) - involved al of the world s great powers World War 1I (1939-1945) - global war, shift in global power structure, women s role/ rights
Scholars attempts to understand modernity have led to: Bureaucracy Rationalization Secularization Alienation Commodification Decontextualization Homogenization Individualism Universalism Reductionism Hybridization Mass Society Industrial Society Mechanization Diversification Democratization
Transition from relative isolated local communities to a more large scale integrated society increased movement of people, goods, capital and information among formerly separate areas, influence beyond the local increased formalization of these mobility paths increased specialization of different segments of society, such as the division of labor, and interdependency among areas
Modernity Is it a good thing or a bad thing?
Benefits of Modernity technological development in scientific, medical, agricultural fields lower infant mortality rates more equality (sort of...) decreased death from starvation eradication of some diseases
Dark side of Modernity atomic bombs nuclear arms race environmental degradation - pollution, climate change genetic engineering / biotechnology
Diseases: Middle Ages 5th - 15th centuries lack of a healthy diet - problems w/ intestinal tract & scurvy inadequate housing - pneumonia improper sanitation - typhoid, cholera Most feared disease - leprosy, until Black Plague came along
Ways typhoid bacteria could contaminate a water well.
Diseases present during the 1700s polio cholera scarlet fever typhoid fever typhus diptheria tuberculosis small pox bubonic plague rickets
What diseases dominate today? What factors contribute to their prevalence?
10 Leading Causes of Death Low income countries death in millions % of deaths Lower respiratory infections 1.05 11.3% Diarrhoeal diseases 0.76 8.2% HIV/AIDS 0.72 7.8% Ischemic heart disease 0.57 6.1% Malaria 0.48 5.2% Stroke and other cardiovascular diseases 0.45 4.9% Tuberculosis 0.40 4.3% Prematurity and low birth weight 0.30 3.2% Birth asphyxia and birth trauma 0.27 2.9% Neonatal infections 0.24 2.6% WHO 2008
10 Leading Causes of Death Middle income countries death in millions % of deaths Ischemic heart disease 5.27 13.7% Stroke and other cardiovascular diseases 4.91 12.8% Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 2.79 7.2% Lower respiratory diseases 2.07 5.4% Diarrhoeal diseases 1.68 4.4% HIV/AIDS 1.03 2.7% Road traffic accidents 0.94 2.4% Tuberculosis 0.93 2.4% Diabetes mellitus 0.87 2.3% Hypertensive heart disease 0.83 2.2% WHO 2008
10 Leading Causes of Death High income countries death in millions % of deaths Ischemic heart disease 1.42 15.6% Stroke and other cardiovascular diseases 0.79 8.7% Trachea, bronchus, lung cancers 0.54 5.9% Alzheimer and other dementias 0.37 4.1% Lower respiratory diseases 0.35 3.8% Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 0.32 3.5% Colon and rectum cancers 0.30 3.3% Diabetes mellitus 0.24 2.6% Hypertensive heart disease 0.21 2.3% Breast Cancer 0.17 1.9% WHO 2008
Making sense of modernity s maladies: health and disease in the Industrial Revolution epidemiology - incidence, distribution, possible control of disease and other factors relating to health endemic - a disease or condition regularly found among a particular people or in a certain area epidemic - a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time the radical changes taking place in society responsible for the sudden rise in endemic and epidemic disease findings? familiar?
For Americans Under 50, Stark Findings on Health US health disadvantage? Cultural factors?