Medical anthropologists have sought to understand and critique the similarities and differences between the social and cultural authority held by folk healing and biomedical practices. Understanding and criticism come from a desire to know more about the relationship between a sick person and a healer/doctor. This relationship is a crucial element in the analysis of how social authority, which “implies the control of action by giving orders” (Joralemon 2010: 69), and cultural authority, which “implies the control of action by giving orders” (Joralemon 2010: 69), and cultural authority, which “implies the control of construction of reality through definitions of facts and values” (Joralemon 2010: 69). Joralemon 2010:69) are trained, used and supported within a medical community. In folk healing and biomedical practices, as Joralemon states, “the ability to heal would support a healer's claims to superiority over others and could be used to promote professionalization” (2010: 70). He says that when a doctor or healer is correct in their diagnosis and the patient gets better, doctors and healers gain more power and prestige within the community, which leads to greater authority. The job of a medical anthropologist is to observe and analyze how these relationships operate within different medical/healing practices around the world and in different communities. When medical anthropologists examine traditional healing practices, they observe how the healing practices used by the healer demonstrate their social and social impact. cultural authority, and they often question this authority because there is no method to quantify the results of success or failure of healing practice through traditional scientific methods of biomedicine. It is also difficult to quantify because the practices themselves vary according to the cultural contexts of the community and each has its... middle of paper ......by budgets for public health measures that establish systems of sanitation or distribute chlorine tablets for water. Traditional and biomedical healing practices strive to help heal patients, improve lives, and end suffering. Each practice has developed and uses its own specific traditions and methods to serve its community. They are very similar because they both rely on the authority of the healer/doctor to heal patients. However, they differ considerably in their procedures and in the development of their social and cultural authority. By studying and analyzing differences, medical anthropologists are able to develop preventive systems and identify solutions to epidemics that best fit the cultural context of different communities. Programs and resources that complement the traditions and cultures of the communities served have been shown to be more effective..