Intracultural Diversity and the Sociocultural Correlates of Blood Pressure: A Jamaican Example

Attention to intracultural diversity in anthropological research has increased, but the implications of that diversity for research design and data analysis in medical anthropology have not proceeded as far. An examination of diversity and its use in guiding data analyses is given here, based on the...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Medical anthropology quarterly 1995-09, Vol.9 (3), p.291-313
Main Authors: Dressler, William W., Grell, Gerald A. C., Viteri, Fernando E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
African Americans - psychology
African Continental Ancestry Group
Attitude to Health
Black communities
Blood Pressure
Class Differences
Communities
Cultural anthropology
Cultural Diversity
Cultural factors
Female
Health
Health Behavior
Humans
intracultural diversity
Jamaica
Life Style
Lifestyle
Lower Class
Male
Medical anthropology
Middle Aged
Middle class
Psychological Factors
Rural Population
Social Class
Social classes
Social factors
Social interaction
Social Values
Sociocultural Factors
Socioeconomic Factors
Socioeconomic status
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Attention to intracultural diversity in anthropological research has increased, but the implications of that diversity for research design and data analysis in medical anthropology have not proceeded as far. An examination of diversity and its use in guiding data analyses is given here, based on the study of blood pressure and its social and psychological correlates. It is argued that in the specific ethnographic setting of a small West Indian town, social class structures the diversity of the meanings of beliefs and behaviors. Diversity of meanings, in turn, alters the associations of those beliefs and behaviors with blood pressure. Data analyses guided by this orientation demonstrate that the social patterning of blood pressure varies between and within social class. Specifically, it is shown that one model of social and psychological influences on blood pressure applies only to middle-class persons in a small Jamaican community and not to lower-class persons. Medical anthropologists need to be more sensitive to the range of intracultural diversity and to how that diversity can influence the results of research.
ISSN:0745-5194
1548-1387
DOI:10.1525/maq.1995.9.3.02a00020