Antecedents of Culture-in-Health Research

Scholarly and practical interest in the relationship between health, variously defined, and the sociocultural realm has a long and distinguished history under such headings as social medicine, community health, medical anthropology, medical sociology, sociology of health and illness, and social and cultural epidemiology. The boundaries between these various categories are blurred at many points, and observers often use the terms interchangeably. The brief discussion here is designed to highlight the characteristic emphasis of each rather than to define clear distinctions. The comments that follow sketch activity during the twentieth century, although theoretical and applied origins could be traced across hundreds of years.