The growth of medical anthropology as a distinct sub-discipline has opened up many new roles for anthropologists within the medical field, and identified an ever wider range of mutual interests. In this study the anthropologists role as a teacher in the basic medical curriculum is examined in order to determine whether "broad and general relevance" exists between the two fields. / Field data is analyzed from 2 1/2 years active participation teaching at a newly founded medical school in the North Mexican industrial of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. Information on institutions history and social structures, student values and attitudes toward the professional medical milieu, and responses to specific teaching material is discussed as components of the decision making process which led to role definition. The differences between classroom and field teaching of anthropology were explored in connection with an urban vaccination campaign and an experimental field course in a bi-ethnic rural community of the sierra tarahumara (Chihuahua). The medical school is seen as a reflection of the community and professional context which surrounds it, and the need to make anthropological teaching congruent to its particular needs and circumstances is stressed. / The study concludes that general relevance has not yet been achieved due to the lack of a definable clinical role for the anthropologist, and unresolved conflicts between the biological and anthropological models of man.

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