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Anthropology · Chapter 12

Why Culture Decides in Global Health

A global health program can be biologically perfect and still fail — because it was written in the outsider’s categories and delivered into somebody else’s world. Take six real programs and look at each one three times: the plan, the lived world it landed in, and the redesign.

The encounter

Tap the diagram — the program, the community, the bridge
Program ↔ community fit—
Who
decides
Belief &
ritual
Work &
cost
History &
trust
Six programs, three views eachpick a case below to begin

Choose a case

What medical anthropology brings to the table

Six toolsTap any one. These are the working concepts behind every redesign on this page — the reason an anthropologist is now a standard member of an outbreak response team.