Practicing medicine well requires recognizing the breadth of human experien
ce and attending to the psychological and sociocultural dimensions of patie
nts as well as their physical needs. Central to the concerns of anthropolog
y are the shared beliefs and values expressed in social practices and tradi
tions that give meaning to everyday life. The relevance of anthropology for
biomedical practice and research is grounded in the discipline's emphasis
on contextual meaning and its unique strategies for data gathering. In this
article, we briefly review the field of anthropology and the discipline of
medical anthropology. We argue for incorporating anthropological concepts
and methods in medical training, and summarize anthropology's role in medic
al education over the past century. Finally, we present ideas for including
anthropology in the medical curriculum, proposing curricular goals and con
tent, and teaching settings and techniques. An anthropological orientation
can foster trainee self-awareness, help trainees prepare for the diverse pe
rspectives they will encounter in our pluralistic society, and facilitate c
ritical analysis of biomedicine and its systems of care.