Exploring Medical Anthropology

This widely adopted text is a concise and engaging introduction to the field that presents competing theoretical perspectives in a balanced fashion, highlighting points of conflict and convergence.   Written in an accessible, jargon-free language, Exploring Medical Anthropology’s concise length leaves room for instructors to supplement it with monographs of their own choosing. Concrete cases and the author’s personal research experiences are utilized to explain some of the discipline’s most important insights; such as that biology and culture matter equally in the human experience of disease and that medical anthropology can help to alleviate human suffering.   An extensive glossary facilitates student learning of concepts and terms, while a list of suggested readings at the end of each chapter and an extensive bibliography encourage further exploration.

Table of Contents:
Preface   Chapter 1   What's So Cultural About Disease?             Culture in Medicine             Development of Medical Anthropology             Medical Anthropology Today             Summary: Placing Medical Anthropology Among the Social Sciences of Medicine             Suggested Readings             Notes   Chapter 2   Anthropological Questions and Methods in the Study of Sickness and Healing             Studying Shamans in Peru             Studying Medicine in the United States             Summary: The Anthropological Vision             Suggested Readings             Notes   Chapter 3: Recognizing Biological, Social and Cultural Interconnections: Evolutionary and Ecological Perspectives on a Cholera Epidemic             Thinking About Epidemics             History and Biology of Cholera             Epidemiological Accounts of Peru's Cholera Epidemic             Evolution and the Ecological Framework             Cholera and the Evolutionary Framework             Medical Anthropology Embraces the Ecological/Evolutionary Model             Suggested Readings             Notes   Chapter 4  Expanding the Vision of Medical Anthropology: Critical and Interpretive Views of the Cholera Epidemic             Political-Economy of Cholera             Political-Economic vs. Ecological/Evolutionary Perspectives             Interpretive View of Cholera             Taking a Broader, Inclusive Perspective             Suggested Readings             Notes   Chapter 5 The Global Petri Dish             Transitions             SARS: The First Global Epidemic of the 21st Century             One Health Ecology             Further Complications: The Threat of Bioterrorism             Suggested Readings             Notes   Chapter 6  Healers and the Healing Professions             Healing Roles: Organizing the Diversity             Authority of Healers             Authority in the Folk Health Sector: Position of  Peruvian Curanderos             Authority in the Professional Health Care Sector: Case of Biomedicine             Challenges to Biomedical Authority             Authority of Biomedicine in Non-Western Countries             Conclusion             Suggested Readings             Notes   Chapter 7  Applying Medical Anthropology             Medical Anthropology in International Development: A Brief History             Work of Applied Medical Anthropologists in International Contexts             Applying Medical Anthropology in the United States             Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Applied Anthropology Under Attack             Personal Reflections             Suggested Readings             Notes   Chapter 8: Anthropology and Medical Ethics             Medical Ethics: A Comparative Framework             Medical Ethics Beyond Biomedicine             Development of Bioethics in the United States             Social Sciences and Bioethics             Social Science: Out of the Closet             Suggested Readings             Notes   Chapter 9: Body, Self and Biotechnologies             Cross-Cultural Views of the Self             The Stem Cell Debate             “Baby” Pictures             Rights, Death and the Autonomous Self             Conclusion             Suggested Readings             Notes   Chapter 10: A Look Back and a Glance Ahead             Advantages of Medical Anthropology             Thinking Anthropologically about HIV/AIDS             Future Directions in Medical Anthropology             Academic and Professional Career Paths Related to Medical Anthropology             Conclusion             Suggested Readings             Notes   Glossary References Cited