FIELD sociomedical sciences

Comprised of three disciplinary fields: Anthropology in Health, Education and Health Sciences and Health Policy Management.

Health Anthropology

Anthropology in health is an emerging field of social and cultural anthropology, based on the research and production of theories about social processes and cultural representations of health, illness and care practices or assistance related to it. In the health sector there is now greater understanding of the need to change strategies in the provision of services, expanding the biological approach to other important aspects in the maintenance or loss of health, such as psychological, social, economic, environment, culture and gender. Conception which has crystallized into specific programs implemented primarily in rural, marginalized and indigenous congruence that require medical activity and the needs of the populations served. An example of this is the presence of the medicine in the field of inter national health. This field is distinguished by its emphasis on the social determinants of health-disease process, by studying the correlation between epidemiological trends and structural inequalities to expose fundamental social causes of public health events, including discrimination, stigma and poverty.

The addition of this proposed disciplinary field, is supported in various priority programs of national and international policies, such as the program "Mexico Multicultural Nation", created to promote and guide thinking in all university activities , about the constitutional reforms that defined our country as a Multicultural Nation, "Mexico, in the forties gave impetus to important anthropological contributions in this area, has been lagging behind in health policies that apply in these areas "(PAHO-WHO), while still limited the actions that seek to reduce the inequality gap mainly in multi-ethnic contexts.

For related studies, it should be noted that the Institute of Anthropological Research in conjunction with the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, UNAM, offering a degree in anthropology in which trabajosde perform research in this field, without the program specifically addresses the area of ​​health. In the National School of Anthropology and History, INAH, existed two decades ago Medical Anthropology program, which since 2000 focused on the Center for Research and Higher Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS), leaving only the possibility of research in the areas of Physical Anthropology and Ethnology.

Internationally, since the 70s are graduate in the United States, England and France and then in Spain, Germany and Canada. In these countries, the most important are those of Berkeley, UCLA and Harvard. In France flourished in Medical Anthropology program with social trend at the University of Paris and at the College de France with emphasis on ethnomedicine and ethnobotany ethnopsychiatry care. In Spain highlights the graduate offers the University of Tarragona and Latin America only Brazil and Argentina have graduate programs of this nature.

This cover disciplinary field of anthropology, and all disciplines in a multi and interdisciplinary converge in the area of ​​health, such a field is added covering an academic discipline in the formation of human resources that respond to one of the many needs of the country.