A Companion to Medical Anthropology (eBook)

Merrill Singer is Professor at the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Community Medicine, University of Connecticut; and Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Health, Intervention and Prevention. Pamela I. Erickson is Professor at the Department of Anthropology and Department of Community Medicine, University of Connecticut.

Synopsis of Contents viii

List of Figures xix

List of Tables xx

Notes on Contributors xxi

Acknowledgments - Personal xxxii

Acknowledgments - Sources xxxiii

Introduction 1

Part I Theories, Applications, and Methods 7

1 Medical Anthropology in Disciplinary Context: Definitional
Struggles and Key Debates (or Answering the Cri Du Coeur) 9

Elisa J. Sobo

2 Critical Biocultural Approaches in Medical Anthropology
29

Tom Leatherman and Alan H. Goodman

3 Applied Medical Anthropology: Praxis, Pragmatics, Politics,
and Promises 49

Robert T. Trotter, II

4 Research Design and Methods in Medical Anthropology 69

Clarence C. Gravlee

5 Medical Anthropology and Public Policy 93

Merrill Eisenberg

Part II Contexts and Conditions 117

6 Culture and the Stress Process 119

William W. Dressler

7 Global Health 135

Craig R. Janes and Kitty K. Corbett

8 Syndemics in Global Health 159

Merrill Singer, D. Ann Herring, Judith Littleton, and Melanie
Rock

9 The Ecology of Disease and Health 181

Patricia K. Townsend

10 The Medical Anthropology of Water 197

Linda M. Whiteford and Cecilia Vindrola Padros

11 Political Violence, War and Medical Anthropology 219

Barbara Rylko-Bauer and Merrill Singer

Part III Health and Behavior 251

12 Humans in a World of Microbes: The Anthropology of Infectious
Disease 253

Peter J. Brown, George J. Armelagos, and Kenneth C. Maes

13 Sexuality, Medical Anthropology, and Public Health 271

Pamela I. Erickson

14 Situating Birth in the Anthropology of Reproduction 289

Carolyn Sargent and Lauren Gulbas

15 Nutrition and Health 305

David A. Himmelgreen, Nancy Romero Daza and Charlotte A.
Noble

16 Anthropologies of Cancer and Risk, Uncertainty and Disruption
323

Lenore Manderson

17 Generation RX: Anthropological Research on Pharmaceutical
Enhancement, Lifestyle Regulation, Self-Medication and Recreational
Drug Use 339

Gilbert Quintero and Mark Nichter

18 Anthropology and the Study of Illicit Drug Use 357

J. Bryan Page

Part IV Healthwork: Care, Treatment, and Communication
379

19 Ethnomedicine 381

Marsha B. Quinlan

20 Medical Pluralism: An Evolving and Contested Concept in
Medical Anthropology 405

Hans A. Baer

21 Biotechnologies of Care 425

Julie Park and Ruth Fitzgerald

22 Social Interaction and Technology: Cultural Competency and
the Universality of Good Manners 443

Kathryn Coe, Gail Barker, and Craig Palmer

23 Biocommunicability 459

Charles L. Briggs

24 Anthropology at the End of Life 477

Ron Barrett

Part V The Road Ahead 491

25 Operationalizing a Right to Health: Theorizing a National
Health System as a "Commons" 493

Sandy Smith-Nonini and Beverly Bell

26 As the Future Explodes into the Present: Emergent Issues and
the Tomorrow of Medical Anthropology 515

Merrill Singer and Pamela I. Erickson

Index 533

"It will be of use to undergraduates and postgraduates, as well as proving worthwhile to academics seeking accessible summaries of areas outside their specialism."--Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

"A Companion to Medical Anthropology, edited by Merrill Singer and Pamela I. Erickson, is quite simply the best overview that is currently available of the field of medical anthropology in the early 21st century. The chapters brought together in this volume provide not only a definitive overview of an intellectual field, but also a clear sense of medical anthropology's engagement with the world of politics, policy and practice. This is critical social research at its very best."
Richard G. Parker, Columbia University

"With its broad scope and accomplished contributors, this volume will be a primary reference for all medical anthropologists and students of the field. Its comprehensive coverage extends both to dominant and emerging themes in the discipline."
James Trostle, Trinity College