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Print Price: $89.99

Format:
Paperback
480 pp.
6.125" x 9.25"

ISBN-13:
9780197515990

Copyright Year:
2021

Imprint: OUP US

Medical Anthropology

A Biocultural Approach, Fourth Edition

Andrea S. Wiley and John S. Allen

A biocultural approach to medical anthropology, examining health issues within evolutionary, historical, sociocultural, and political-economic contexts

Medical Anthropology: A Biocultural Approach, Fourth Edition, offers an accessible and contemporary overview of this rapidly expanding field. For each health issue examined in the text, the authors first present basic biological information and then expand their analysis to include evolutionary, historical, and cross-cultural perspectives on how these issues emerged and are understood. Medical Anthropology considers how a biocultural approach can be applied to more effective prevention and treatment efforts and underscores medical anthropology's potential to improve health around the world.

Readership : This is an undergraduate-level text for students taking courses in medical anthropology.

Reviews

"Medical Anthropology is the most integrated biocultural text I have found. It provides essential background for students from diverse disciplines and offers an excellent balance of cultural anthropology, biological anthropology, and relevant health issues."
--Melissa Melby, University of Delaware
"This is an excellent introduction to medical anthropology. It is well-balanced, accessible, and provides accurate lessons for students as they upend many of their assumptions about culture and its importance in this kind of material."
--Roberta Fiske Rusciano, Rider University
"Medical Anthropology takes a true holistic anthropological approach to the study of health and disease, and provides numerous concrete illustrations of case studies from around the world."
--Lianne Tripp, University of Northern British Columbia

Preface: A Biocultural Approach to Medical Anthropology
What is Distinctive About This Text
What Is New In This Edition
Outline of the Book
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction: A Biolcultural Approach to Medical Anthropology
What Is Anthropology?
The Development of Medical Anthropology
What is Medical Anthropology?
The Culture Concept
A Biocultural Perspective
Looking Ahead
2. Anthropological Perspectives on Health and Disease
Definitions of Health
Disease
Illness
Sickness
Health, Ethics, and Cultural Relativism
The Locus of Health: The Body and Society
Biological Normalcy
Evolutionary Perspectives on Health
Adaptability
Behavioral Adaptability
Cultural Approaches in Medical Anthropology
Political Economy of Health
Ethnomedical Systems
Interpretive Approaches to Illness and Suffering
Applied Medical Anthropology
Epidemiology
Conclusion
3. Healers and Healing
Culture and Healing Systems
Recruitment: How Healers Become Healers
Alternative and Complementary Medicines
Acupuncture
Chiropractic
Navajo Medicine
When Biomedicine is Alternative Medicine
Alternative Biomedicines
Death as a Biocultural Concept
Placebo and Nocebo
Harnessing the Power of the Placebo
Efficacy
Vaccination and Anti-Vaxx Movements
Conclusion
4. Diet and Nutrition in Health and Disease
Human Nutrition
How Many Nutrients Do You Need?
Diet and Digestion
Nutrition Transitions in Human Prehistory and History
Evolutionary History: Hunter Gatherer and "Paleo" Diets
Agricultural Transition
Post Agricultural Dietary Adaptations and Challenges
Lactase persistence/non-persistence and Lactose intolerance
Celiac Disease
Barry Popkin's Nutrition Transition: Globalization and Ultra-Processing
Obesity
Diabetes
Future Nutrition Transitions and Sustainability Concerns
Conclusion
5. Child Growth and Health
Life History Theory
Gestation: The First 38 Weeks of Growth and Development
Infancy
Childhood
Small But Healthy?
Is Bigger Better?
Sex, Gender, Growth, and Health
Environmental Toxins and Growth
Puberty and the Onset of Adolescence
Teenage Pregnancy in the United States
Conclusion
6. Reproductive Health in Biocultural Context
Medicalization of Women's Health and Reproductive Health
Menstruation
Premenstruation Syndrome
Determinations of Fertility
Infertility
The Medicalization of Male Sexual Dysfunction
Female Genital Cutting
Pregnancy
Bird
Mothering
Bed-Sharing and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
Menopause
Reproductive Events and Breast Cancer Risk
Conclusion
7. Aging
The Aging Body
Physiological Theories of Aging
Somatic Mutations
Free Radicals
Wear and Degeneration
Telomeres
Evolutionary Theories of Aging
The Aging Brain
Alzheimer's Disease, Genes, and Evolution
Extending Life? Caloric Restriction and an Okinawa Case Study
Health, Illness, and the Cultural Construction of Aging
The Future of Aging
8. Infectious Diseases: Pathogens, Hosts, and Evolutionary Interplay
Koch's Postulates
Taxonomy of Infectious Disease
Viruses
Bacteria
Protozoa
Fungi
Worms
Prions
How Pathogens Spread
Human Defenses Against Pathogens
The Immune Response: A Brief Overview
Human-Pathogen Coevolution
Malaria: A Post-Agricultural Disease
Evolutionary Changes in Pathogens
Antibiotic Resistance
Variation in Pathogen Virulence
Allergies and Asthma: Relationship to Infectious Disease Exposure?
Conclusion
9. Globalization, Poverty, and Infectious Disease
Emergent and Resurgent Diseases
Social Transformations, Colonialism, and Globalizing Infections
Smallpox
Colonialism and Disease in the Tropics
Colonialism's Health Legacy
Climate Change and Emerging/Resuring Diseases
Cholera
Genetic Adaptation to Cholera
Dams and Infectious Disease
Ebola: The Quintessential "Emerging Disease"
Tuberculosis: Emerging and Resuring
HIV/AIDS: A New(ish) Disease
Conclusion
10. Stress, Social Inequality, and Race and Ethnicity
Biology of the Stress Response
The Nervous System Stress Response
The Hormonal Stress Response
Why is Stress Different for Humans?
Stress and Biological Normalcy?
Stress and Health
Cardiovascular Disease
Immune Function
Child Growth
Inequality, Stress, and Health
Relative Status
Social Cohesion
Social Support
Race/Ethnicity, Racism/Discrimination and Health in the United States
Conclusion
11. Mental Health and Illness
The Medical Model in Biocultural Context
Culture-Bound Syndromes
Eating Disorders
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Culture
Mood Disorders
Depression
Bipolar Disorder and Creativity
The Evolution of Substance Use and Abuse
Schizophrenia
Sleep
Conclusion
Epilogue: The Relevance of Medical Anthropology
What Can I Do Next If I am Interested in Medical Anthropology?
Graduate Programs in Anthropology
Public Health Programs
Medical Schools and Clinical Health Professions
Work in Governmental and Nongovernmental Health Agencies
Genetic Counseling
Glossary
References

There are no Instructor/Student Resources available at this time.

Andrea S. Wiley is Professor and Chair of Anthropology at Indiana University, Bloomington.

John S. Allen is Research Associate in the Department of Anthropology at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Making Sense in the Social Sciences - Margot Northey, Lorne Tepperman and Patrizia Albanese
Anthropology - Robert L. Welsch, Luis A. Vivanco and Agustin Fuentes

Cultural Anthropology - Robert L. Welsch and Luis A. Vivanco

Asking Questions About Cultural Anthropology - Robert L. Welsch and Luis A. Vivanco
Anthropology and Public Health - Robert A Hahn and Marcia Inborn
Anthropology Unbound - E. Paul Durrenberger and Suzan Erem

Special Features

An explicit biocultural focus to each chapter.
Holistic anthropological analysis, including relevant work from all of the subdisciplines of anthropology, but most especially biological and cultural anthropology.
"Anthropologist in Action" box feature: Highlights anthropologists who make use of their skills to create, evaluate, or implement health policies, both within their home country and across the globe.
Accessibility and relevance to students in the biological sciences and social sciences.
Use of both contemporary and historical examples.

New to this Edition

Updated research to include the latest findings and new approaches.
More discussion of the importance of causation in healing, training in alternative medicine, decision making in transplant patients, and the concept of cultural safety in healthcare delivery.
Updated discussion of the vaccination and anti-vaxx movements, including cross-cultural persepectives.
Chapter on diet and nutrition substantially revised, organized around major transitions in prehistory and history, and population variation in diet and nutrition.
Updated discussion of emerging infectious diseases, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic
Expanded discussion of community mental health centers and stigma and mental illness.
Elaborated discussion of intersectionality and structural discrimination/racism and its relationship to stress and health disparities.