American zombies have become the symbolic repository for many of our social concerns and fears.

Illness the psychological and social experience the patient has of a disease.

Rituals provide a sense of control by imposing order on the chaos of everyday life.

Medical anthropology is

Disease is the purely physiological condition of being sick, usually determined by a physician.

Amongst the San, !Kung of the Kalahari, healers go into a trance in order to cure sickness. They sometimes tie offerings to animal spirits to trees, or use drums in order to contact animal and ancestor spirits. They will also often trance-dance all night. This is an example of which kind of healing?

Coca leaf products of the Andean peoples is chewed to cure gastrointestinal conditions, as an antidepressant, to treat altitude sickness, as an energizer. This is an example of which form of healing?

Rituals are:

Cultures shapes how we symbolically interpret health and illness, and how we respond to these experiences.

Anthropologists have observed that people tend to perform more rituals in times of uncertainty.