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The Anthropology of SARS and the Leveraging of Cultural Logics in Vietnam

Date

2019-04-18

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

ORCID

0000-0002-0912-6860

Type

Thesis

Degree Level

Masters

Abstract

With the accessibility of air travel, infectious diseases such as SARS, MERS, Avian Influenza and Ebola have become extremely mobile. Although severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) originated in China, it wasn't diagnosed there. Chinese-American businessman Johnny Chen was diagnosed on his arrival to Vietnam from China in February 2003, spurring the WHO to issue an unprecedented global alert. An acute and mysterious respiratory disease was ravaging Vietnam. Dr. Carlo Urbani, the doctor who first diagnosed SARS, leveraged the cultural logics in Vietnam to mobilize the European Union, the WHO, and the communist government into action with such rapidity that Vietnam stayed ahead of the curve, and was the first country to eradicate SARS. From the perspective of critical medical anthropology (Singer 2016), utilizing a theory of cultural logics (Enfield 2000), and Foucaldian biopower (1982), I explore Vietnam’s embedded cultural traits and the interaction between the state and the population “the conduct of conduct” (Rabinow, Foucault 1984:18) through the Ministry of Health and the central government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam during the pandemic outbreak. Vietnam is a case-study in disease containment; the first country – as a developing nation – to control a mass contagion in the contemporary age.

Description

Keywords

SARS, Cultural Logics, Vietnam

Citation

Degree

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Department

Archaeology and Anthropology

Program

Anthropology

Part Of

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DOI

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