Of racism, sterilization and some other oblivion of Mexican anthropology and epidemiology

https://doi.org/10.18294/sc.2009.258

Published 6 August 2009 Open Access


Eduardo L. Menéndez Doctor en Ciencias Antropológicas. Profesor e investigador del Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS), México. Coordinador del Seminario Permanente de Antropología Médica (SPAM)



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Keywords:

Racism, Sterilization, Gender and Health, Epidemiology, Anthropology

Abstract


In the last years, epidemiological and anthropological works developed in Mexico, have shown the presence of certain similar technical and methodological orientations which tend to leave aside important problems and factors in the description and analysis of different health/sickness/attention processes (HSAP). These orientations also tend to distort data and formulate interpretations that have little to do with the processes that really occur in the reality studied. Such orientations will be described and analyzed through three processes: a) the scarce or inexistent inclusion of racism in the study and analysis of HSAP; b) the distortions of the data and interpretation generated by the studies of gender regarding one part of the violence; and c) the exclusion of certain aspect and in particular, the subjectivity in the prevailing interpretations about the characteristics and increases of the homicides in Mexico. Particular and joint interpretations are proposed and the need to use a rational approach to the study of HSAP is highlighted.