Create a new account

It's simple, and free.

"Medicine Man," A Film of Anthropology

"Medicine Man," A Film of Anthropology

Anthropology is a multidisciplinary field of science and scholarship, which includes the study of all aspects of humankind. Various fields of Anthropological comparative study of humanity can be detected in the film "Medicine Man," including natural science, social science, and humanities. This film addressed Cultural Anthropological issues involving cultural relativism, ethnography, and science and the scientific method.

Cultural relativism, the view that all ethical truth is relative to a specified culture, was a theory that Dr. Robert Campbell utilized to prevent him from making judgments of the Amazonian natives based upon his own cultural beliefs (Sutton, Yohe 395). Rather he overlooked the differences and accepted the indigenous people for their own cultural continuity, which truly made him value Amazonian aborigine society because he denoted that no cultures are better or worse than others. Dr. Campbell recognizes the importance of this theory, which became obvious when Dr. R' Crane arrived and was shocked by the exposed bodies, rampant drinking, and unique native rituals. Thus, under Dr. Campbell's influence, Dr. Crane quickly realized the importance of the cultures' individuality and accepted its distinctiveness and basic set of morality and ethics. The strength of cultural relativism was that it allowed the researchers to hold fast to their moral intuitions without being judgmental about other societies that do not share those intuitions (5). This is a prime example of the importance of cultural relativism and its application in field research.

Ethnography, the study of a particular group at a particular time was utilized in the film "Medicine Man" in order for Dr. Campbell to become more accustom to the rituals, lifestyles, and medical remedies of the Amazonian society (397). In his ethnographic study of the rain forest natives, Dr. Campbell observed very old indigenous concep...

Page 1 of 3 Next >

More on "Medicine Man," A Film of Anthropology...

Loading...
APA     MLA     Chicago
"Medicine Man," A Film of Anthropology. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 06:50, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1686844.html