The fully revised new edition of the defining reference work in the field of medical anthropology
A Companion to Medical Anthropology, Second Edition provides the most complete account of the key issues and debates in this dynamic, rapidly growing field. Bringing together contributions by leading international authorities in medical anthropology, this comprehensive reference work presents critical assessments and interpretations of a wide range of topical themes, including global and environmental health, political violence and war, poverty, malnutrition, substance abuse, reproductive health, and infectious diseases. Throughout the text, readers explore the global, historical, and political factors that continue to influence how health and illness are experienced and understood.
The second edition is fully updated to reflect current controversies and significant new developments in the anthropology of health and related fields. More than twenty new and revised articles address research areas including war and health, illicit drug abuse, climate change and health, colonialism and modern biomedicine, activist-led research, syndemics, ethnomedicines, biocommunicability, COVID-19, and many others. Highlighting the impact medical anthropologists have on global health care policy and practice, A Companion to Medical Anthropology, Second Edition:
Features specially commissioned articles by medical anthropologists working in communities worldwide Discusses future trends and emerging research areas in the field Describes biocultural approaches to health and illness and research design and methods in applied medical anthropology
Addresses topics including chronic diseases, rising levels of inequality, war and health, migration and health, nutritional health, self-medication, and end of life care Part of the acclaimed Wiley Blackwell Companions to Anthropology series, A Companion to Medical Anthropology, Second Edition, remains an indispensable resource for medical anthropologists, as well as an excellent textbook for courses in medical anthropology, ethnomedicine, global health care, and medical policy.
Notes on Contributors ix Introduction 1 Part I: Theories, Applications, and Methods 7 1 Re/Inventing Medical Anthropology: Definitional Struggles and Key Debates (Or: Answering the Cri Du Coeur) 9 Elisa J. Sobo 2 Critical Biocultural Approaches to Health and Illness 26 Thomas L. 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 67 Clarence C. Gravlee Part II: Contexts and Conditions 93 5 Culture and the Stress Process 95 William W. Dressler 6 Global Health 109 Craig R. Janes, Jennifer A. Liu, and Kitty K. Corbett 7 Syndemics in Global Health 126 Merrill Singer and Emily Mendenhall 8 The Ecology of Health and Disease 145 Patricia K. Townsend 9 The Medical Anthropology of Water and Sanitation 160 E. Christian Wells and Linda M. Whiteford 10 Medical Anthropology of Political Violence and War 180 Barbara Rylko-Bauer 11 Medical Anthropology at the End of Life 198 Ron Barrett Part III: Health and Behavior 213 12 The Anthropology of Reproduction 215 Elise Andaya and Mounia El Kotni 13 Anthropological Approaches to Migration and Health 230 Heide Castañeda 14 Current Approaches to Nutritional Health in Medical Anthropology 245 Deven Gray, David Himmelgreen, Nancy Romero-Daza, and Charlotte Noble 15 Cancers’ Multiplicities: Anthropologies of Interventions and Care 260 Lenore Manderson 16 Anthropology and the Study of Illicit Drug Use 275 J. Bryan Page 17 Revisiting Generation Rx: Emerging Trends in Pharmaceutical Enhancement, Lifestyle Regulation, Self-Medication, and Recreational Drug Use 295 Gilbert Quintero and Mark Nichter Part IV: Healthwork: Care, Treatment, and Communication 315 18 Ethnomedicines: Traditions of Medical Knowledge 317 Marsha B. Quinlan 19 Medical Pluralism: An Evolving and Contested Concept in Medical Anthropology 342 Hans A. Baer 20 Biotechnologies of Care 358 Ruth Fitzgerald and Julie Park 21 Medicine: Colonial, Postcolonial, or Decolonial? 373 César Ernesto Abadía-Barrero 22 The Politics of Communicability 388 Charles L. Briggs Part V: The Road Ahead 407 23 When Workers’ Health is Public Health: The Structural Complicity of State Public Health Policies on Covid-19 Spread in Meat-Processing Plants and Minority Communities 409 Sandy Smith-Nonini 24 Climate Change and Health: Anthropology and Beyond 429 Merrill Singer, Eleanor Shoreman-Ouimet, and Ashley L. Graham Index 442
MERRILL SINGER is Emeritus Professor in the Anthropology Department at the University of Connecticut, USA, as well as Senior Research Scientist in the Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy (InCHIP) at the University of Connecticut, USA. For his work in the field of medical anthropology, Professor Singer has been awarded a number of prestigious awards, including the Society for Medical Anthropology Career Award, and the Prize for Distinguished Achievement in the Critical Study of North America. He is the authorand editor of numerous publications on disease interactions, global warming and health, including the Wiley Blackwell Companion to the Anthropology of Environmental Health. PAMELA I. ERICKSON is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Connecticut, USA. Her research focuses on medical anthropology, maternal and child health, global health, and sexual and reproductive health of adolescents and young adults. She is fellow of the American Anthropological Association and the Society for Applied Anthropology, and has also served on the Governing Council of the Family and Reproductive Health Section of the American Public Health Association. CÉSAR E. ABADÍA-BARRERO is Associate Professor in the Anthropology Department and the Human Rights Institute at the University of Connecticut, USA. His research interests involve medical anthropology in Latin America as well as activist-oriented themes such as health and human rights, legal and moral issues in health, social science theory, and health inequalities.
