• Laurent Vidal.
• Anthropologue, IRD, UMR 912 (Inserm-IRD-Université d'Aix-Marseille), Sciences économiques et sociales, Systèmes de Santé et Sociétés (SE4S) FPAE/IRD, BP 164, Yaoundé, Cameroun. laurent.vidal@ird.fr
• Med Sci (Paris). 2008 Oct 1;24(10):879-82.

AbstractAnthropology and medicine share many concerns, but have had trouble collaborating in the past. The anthropologist has had to plead both with his colleagues and physicians to move beyond a < culturalist > vision that would confine him to the study of traditional or alternative medicines and representations of populations and the sick. The anthropologist's approach perceived as intrusive has also raised fears in the medical world. These reciprocal misunderstandings and stereotypes need to be overcome by an anthropology that studies the practices and knowledge of modern medicine as they are elaborated daily. Anthropology will dialogue with medicine without judging it. In its turn, medicine will open its sites of healing and teaching to the anthropologist. Anthropology at the heart of medicine is organized around the idea that the paths and expectations of health professionals reflect the specicifities of the local system of health. The individual dimensions of practices cannot be divorced from the functioning of structures of health and decision. Finally, like any other kind of anthropology, medical anthropology must scrutinize its own methods and ethics in a critical way.

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