[15-2] Toward Health Anthropology: From the practices of performance activitities related to mental illness
Presentation language：English
The purpose of this study is to consider health anthropology through verification of the concept of “health” and fieldwork involving performance activities related to mental illness.
“Health” is commonly considered a concept that includes “medicine.” Accordingly, health humanities emphasize the social and cultural aspects of medicine. However, some research on health suggests that medicine is not actually a part of health. In fact, it is argued that, as a concept, health is more properly regarded as the opposite of medicine. This type of health concept is seen in such theory as salutogenesis, health promotion and the practice of performance activities related to mental illness. The theory of salutogenesis regards health as a continuum from dis-ease to health-ease, asserting that creating health is different from the prevention of disease. Dubos (1959) explained the difference between health and medicine by using Greek mythology. In addition to providing a literature review, this paper describes fieldwork involving performance activities indicating a form of health that is different from medicine. Health anthropology has the potential to develop a concept of health that focuses on life and is on the opposite side of medicine.