Introducing Medical Anthropology: A Discipline in Action

Cover
Third Edition: Introducing Medical Anthropology: A Discipline in Action
Copyright Page
Contents
Preface
About the Authors
1
	Introduction to the Anthropology of Health
		Introduction and Overview
		Encountering Health Anthropology
		Three Case Studies in Applied Health Anthropology
		Practical and Theoretical Contributions of Health Anthropology
		Defining Health Anthropology
		History of Health Anthropology
		The Relationship of Health Anthropology to Anthropology and to Other Health-Related Disciplines
		Health Anthropology Theories
		Discussion Questions
2
	What Health Anthropologists Do
		Introduction and Overview
		Three Settings, Three Case Studies, Three Health Anthropologists
		A Case Study
		What Health Anthropologists Study
		Conducting Research: A Peculiarly Anthropological Approach
		Research Methods
		Health Anthropology in Use
		The Health Anthropology Crystal Ball
		Discussion Questions
3
	Understanding Health, Illness, and Disease
		Introduction and Overview
		Conceptions of Health and Illness
		Sufferer Experience
		Illness Narratives
		Embodied Health Experience
		Healer versus Sufferer Conception of Disease
		Discussion Questions
4
	Health Disparity, Health Inequality
		Introduction and Overview
		What Is Health Disparity?
		Health Disparity in the United States
		Gasping for Breath
		Causes of Health Disparity: Lifestyle versus Social Inequality
		Biology of Poverty
		Insuring Disease
		Culturally Competent Care
		Health and Social Disparities Cross-Culturally
		Addressing Health Disparities
		Pushing Back on Health Disparities
		“Race” and Health Disparity
		Discussion Questions
5
	Health and the Environment: Toward a Healthier World
		Introduction and Overview
		Medical Ecology and Critical Health Anthropology on the Environment
		Health and the Environment in the Past
		Health and the Environment Today
		The Political Ecology of Cancer
		The Impact of Private Motor Vehicles on Health
		The Political Ecology of Aids: Assessing a Contemporary Syndemic
		Discussion Questions
6
	Ethnomedicine: The Worlds of Treatment and Healing
		Introduction and Overview
		Approaching Ethnomedicine
		Indigenous and Folk Medicine Systems
		An Evolutionary Model of Disease Theories and Healing Systems
		Case Study: Are the Therapeutic Aspects of Religion Something That Partially Address Refugee Health Problems?
		Biomedicine as the Predominant Ethnomedicine in Modern Societies
		Discussion Questions
7
	Plural Medical Systems: Complexity, Complementarity, and Conflict
		Introduction and Overview
		A Case Study of Medical Pluralism in a Rural Area in a Developing Society: The Altiplano of Bolivia
		Typologies of Plural Medical Systems
		New Directions in the Study of Medical Pluralism
		Discussion Questions
8
	The Biopolitics of Life: Biotechnology, Biocapital, and Bioethics
		Introduction and Overview
		Critical Health Anthropology and Biotechnology
		Science, Nature, and Culture
		Reproductive Technologies
		Divisible Bodies
		Bringing the Lab into the Field: Anthropology and the Neurosciences
		Molecular Biotechnologies: Tiny Pieces, Giant Infrastructures
		The Story of hGH—Growing up Growth Hormone
		The Culture of PCR
		Visualization Technologies
		When Technologies Combine
		Ancestry, Families, and Genetics: Biotechnology and Belonging
		Discussion Questions
9
	Strategies and Visions for a Healthier World
		Introduction and Overview
		Global Capitalism
		Democratic Eco-Socialism as a Pathway for a Healthier World
		Health Anthropology as an Action-Oriented Endeavor
		Discussion Questions
Source Material for Students
	Health Anthropology and Related Journals
	Health Anthropology Organizations and Institutions
	Health Anthropology Blogs
	Health Anthropology Films
	Universities in North America with Anthropology Graduate Programs
	Encyclopedias
	Online Medical Anthropology Tutorials and Resources
Glossary
References
Index