FOR A SOCIOLOGY/ANTHROPOLOGY OF ILLNESS: TOWARDS A DELINEATION OF ITS DISCIPLINARY SPECIFICITIES

The designation `sociology of health' or `medical anthropology/sociology' indicates, at best, only the field and not the peculiarities of the field. As a consequence much work in this sub-discipline is of the genre, `Sociology/Anthropology: Case Study Illness (or Health)'. This paper attempts to regroup the contributions made in this field in order to demonstrate the utility of establishing the specificities of the sub-discipline `sociology/anthroplogy of illness'. Such an exercise would also provide us with a consistent framework for formulating health policies as well as for appreciating the reasons why WHO's blueprint of `Health for All' and China's `Barefoot Doctor' programme ran into difficulties. Furthermore, a systematic pursuit of the specificities of sociology/anthropology of illness would also force us to mutate our understanding of at least a few received formulations on the sociology/anthropology of deviance, professions, and even of tradition and modernity.