Cultural transitions and epidemiology

The analysis of cultural patterns, as an observational and qualitative tool in epidemiological research, is advanced. This approach to epidemiology, biomedicine, human and cultural ecology, focuses on the following theoretical points of view: (i) the intrinsic non-linearity of natural dynamics, (ii) the role of fluctuations in the evolution of self-organized systems, (iii) the reformulation of the homeostasis concept, through the hypothesis of the co-existence of different levels of boundaries of stability (the non-linear processes of adaptation) and the dynamics of transitions (the physiological jumps) between them, (iv) the image of the psychobiological status in peripheral cells (i.e. blood lymphocytes) due to the morphofunctional unity of neuroendocrine and immune systems, (v) the significance of emic/ethic operations used in cultural anthropology. In this conceptual framework, transitions among migrants or within populations, following sudden changes in cultural patterns, are particular events that can also be very interesting for epidemiological research; they can leave the marks of underlying intertwined psychobehavioral, metabolic and immune physiology; they can also be informative as regards the modulation of autonomy, disability, morbidity and mortality curves.