Glossary

Literally “the science of humanity” that studies human beings in aspects ranging from the biology and evolutionary history to the features of society and culture. (Encyclopaedia Britannica, www.britannica.com)

Bioethics interrogate the ethical and philosophical bearings associated with biomedicine, i.e. what does this mean for the conceptualisation of death, where does life begin, what types of procedures are acceptable from an ethical standpoint, etc.

Biomedicine denotes a concept of medicine, dominant in the Western hemisphere, in which knowledge of health and disease is gained through natural sciences and scientific methods. Biological processes are deemed most important for understanding and treating bodily conditions conceived as diseases. Biomedicine is linked to specific assumptions about what constitutes health / a healthy body and which factors are considered relevant for diagnosis and cure. While physical and biochemical processes are given priority, social context and individual experiences are largely neglected.

A critical incident is a first-hand experience with one or more other people, located in a concrete time and space that causes a heavy emotional reaction (that can be negative or positive) in the narrator. The experience is both cognitive and emotional, and may also involve physical reactions (see also culture shock). The method of critical incidents developed by French social psychologist Margalit Cohen-Emerique proposes an ingenious strategy to uncover the set of cultural norms, values, behaviours that people bring into an encounter with others, and which filter the way they interpret and respond to others. It helps to become aware of the illusion of our own cultural neutrality, and invites us to explore the cultural reference frames in a more objective way, and opening up a margin for negotiation where prejudice has a lesser role to play. (Cohen-Emerique 2015: 65)

A major division of anthropology that deals with the study of culture in all of its aspects and that uses the methods, concepts, and data of archaeology, ethnography and ethnology, folklore, and linguistics in its descriptions and analyses of the diverse people in the world. (Medical anthropology 35 emerged as a special field of research and training after World War II, when senior American anthropologists worked as consultants on oversea health care projects). (Encyclopaedia Britannica, www.britannica.com)

Our personal identity includes our group affiliations, and the sum of our social roles and statuses, but what we make out of this material is a unique composition. We position ourselves differently in different situations. (Healthy Diversity project).

Communities and societies are based on shared cultural values and norms that regulate actions and behaviours, but that also generate meaning. A metaphor that can be useful for thinking about values is the compass: values usually indicate what is considered as true and worthy in a given culture – in a way it orients our thoughts and behaviours. Norms on the other hand are concrete regulations of how to act or how not to act in a certain situation.

Culturalisation refers to a process by which a situation is interpreted through the lens of cultural difference and the actions of a person are primarily attributed to their cultural background – even in moments where other factors (personal, situational, etc.) are at play. Thereby the impact of cultural difference is overemphasised, running the risk of reifying, essentialising culture and reinforcing differences.

“Culture should be regarded as the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of a society or a social group, and that it encompasses, in addition to art and literature, lifestyles, ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs” (UNESCO 2001) “Each culture is an answer to the question of what is beautiful, true and just – and how to get there” (Camilleri, C. Les conditions de l’interculturel 1990).

“Culture shock is an interaction with a person or object from a different culture, set in a specific space and time, which provokes negative or positive cognitive and affective reactions, a sensation of loss of reference points, a negative representation of oneself and feeling of lack of approval that can give rise to uneasiness and anger”. Culture shock – as an individual experience, and not in the sense often employed by ethnologists as “shock of civilisations” or mentalities – can have a negative tone as a reaction of disorientation, frustration, rejection, indignation or anxiety. It can trigger a negative representation of oneself and 36 feeling of lack of approval that can give rise to uneasiness and anger. On a positive tone culture shock can be experienced as a reaction of fascination, enthusiasm, and amazement. Culture shocks happen in situations set in a specific space and time, they are both emotional and intellectual experiences. Anyone can experience culture shock, who find themselves out of their usual socio-cultural context, and engage in interaction with a person or object from a different culture. (Cohen-Emerique, 2015: 65)