Anthropology and the sociocultural perspective of drug use

Abstract

This paper presents a discussion on how Anthropology looks at the use of drugs and the people who use them, tracing a short genealogy of the sociocultural perspective that a large part of the anthropologists who study the subject are affiliated with, as opposed to other forms of understanding the phenomenon, closer to pharmacological determinism. Medical Anthropology’s framework and critical stance are highlighted, arguing that deconstructionism and criticism of medicalization and pathologization can and should be applied to the study of drugs.