Doctors and Anthropologists in the Field

Abstract

  This study aimed to consider the possibility of dialogue and collaboration between doctors engaging in community medicine and anthropologists engaging in fieldwork, focusing on the similarities between them. The relationship between doctors and anthropologists was discussed from the perspective of the following four points: long stay, technical and folk terms (dialects), understanding others, and modifying one’s actions. It is important for doctors and anthropologists working in the field to be accepted by patients in their communities. Moreover, doctors and anthropologists should trust patients in the clinical field. Relativization is relevant in both field work and community medicine, and its attitude is cultivated through both. Doctors intend to understand their patients by embodying relativization and modifying their actions in clinical scenarios. In conclusion, doctors can collaborate with anthropologists, and vice versa, and learn from each other through dialogues.