Medical anthropology : a biocultural approach / Andrea S. Wiley, John S. Allen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wiley, Andrea S., 1962-

Contributor:

Allen, John S. (John Scott), 1961-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Medical anthropology.

Physical Description:

xv, 448 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, [2013]

Summary:

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

An ideal core text for introductory courses, Medical Anthropology: A Biocultural Approach, Second Edition, offers on accessible and contemporary overview of this rapidly expanding field. For each health issue examined in the text, the authors first present basic biological information on specific conditions and then expand their analysis to include evolutionary, historical, and cross-cultural perspectives on how these issues 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.

New to this Edition

"Anthropologists in Action" examples show how various anthropologists address real-world health issues

Streamlined overview of infectious diseases

Further consideration of the ways in which climate change is already influencing human health Book jacket.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Introduction 1

What is Anthropology? 2

The Development of Medical Anthropology 3

What is Medical Anthropology? 4

The Culture Concept 6

A Biocultural Perspective 8

Looking Ahead 11

Chapter 2 Anthropological Perspectives on Health and Disease 12

Definitions of Health 12

Disease 13

Illness 14

Anthropologist in Action: Arthur Kleinman 15

Sickness 17

Health, Ethics, and Cultural Relativism 19

The Locus of Health: The Body and Society 20

Biological/Medical Normalcy 21

Evolutionary Perspectives on Health 23

Adaptability 26

Behavioral Adaptability 27

Cultural Approaches in Medical Anthropology 30

Political Economy of Health 30

Ethnomedical Systems 31

Interpretive Approaches to Illness and Suffering 33

Applied Medical Anthropology 35

Epidemiology 36

Conclusion 38

Chapter 3 Healers and Healing 40

Culture and Healing Systems 41

Living Longer with Cystic Fibrosis 46

Recruitment: How Healers Become Healers 47

Alternative and Complementary Medicines 52

Acupuncture 54

Chiropractic 56

Navajo Medicine 58

When Biomedicine is Alternative Medicine 60

Alternative Biomedicines 62

Anthropologist in Action: Joan Cassell 63

Death as a Biocultural Concept 64

Placebo and Nocebo 68

Harnessing the Power of the Placebo 69

Conclusion 72

Chapter 4 Diet and Nutrition in Health and Disease 75

Fundamentals of Nutrition 76

How are Dietary Reference Intakes Constructed? 80

Digestive Physiology 81

An Evolutionary Approach to Nutrition 84

Scurvy in Evolutionary Perspective 85

Ascertaining Diet and Nutritional Status from Ancient Bones 86

Anthropologist in Action: Ellen Messer 92

Nutrition and Chronic Diseases 93

Obesity 96

Diabetes 103

Sugar and High-Fructose Corn Syrup in Biocultural Perspective 107

Lactose Intolerance 108

Celiac Disease 111

Conclusion 113

Chapter 5 Growth and Development 116

Life History Theory 117

Gestation: The First 40 Weeks of Growth and Development 118

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome 119

Birth Weight in the Mountains 123

Infancy 126

Childhood 130

Small but Healthy? 132

Anthropologist in Action: Gretel Pelto 133

Is Bigger Better? 134

Does Milk Make Children Grow? 136

Puberty and the Onset of Adolescence 138

Teenage Pregnancy in the United States 139

Sex, Gender, Growth, and Health 141

Environmental Toxins and Growth 144

Conclusion: The End of Childhood and Transitions to Adulthood 146

Chapter 6 Reproductive Health in Biocultural Context 149

Medicalization of Women's Health and Reproductive Health 149

Menstruation 151

Premenstrual Syndrome 155

Oral Contraceptives and Biological Normalcy 156

Determinants of Fertility 158

Infertility 162

Falling Sperm Counts: Environmental Causes of Male Reproductive Health Problems 166

The Medicalization of Male Sexual Dysfunction 168

Female Genital Cutting 170

Anthropologist in Action: Ellen Gruenbaum 172

Pregnancy 174

Humoral Medicine: Concepts of Hot and Cold 176

Birth 178

Mothering 185

Cosleeping and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome 188

Menopause 190

Reproductive Events and Breast Cancer Risk 193

Conclusion 195

Chapter 7 Aging 198

The Aging Body 200

Physiological Theories of Aging 205

Somatic Mutations 206

Free Radicals 206

Wear and Degeneration 207

Evolutionary Theories of Aging 208

The Aging Brain 209

Alzheimer Disease, Genes, and Evolution 213

Extending Life? Caloric Restriction and an Okinawa Case Study 215

Health, Illness, and the Cultural Construction of Aging 220

Conclusion 223

Chapter 8 Infectious Diseases: Pathogens, Hosts, and Evolutionary Interplay 226

Koch's Postulates 228

Taxonomy of Infectious Disease 229

Viruses 229

Bacteria 232

Protozoa 233

Fungi 233

Worms 234

Prions 234

How Pathogens Spread 234

Human Defenses against Pathogens 236

To Treat or Not to Treat 237

The Immune Response: A Brief Overview 238

Vaccination: How Does it Work? 242

The Language of Immunity 244

Human-Pathogen Co-Evolution 245

Malaria: A Post-Agricultural Disease 249

Evolutionary Changes in Pathogens 254

Antibiotic Resistance 256

Variation in Pathogen Virulence 258

Allergies and Asthma: Relationship to Infectious Disease Exposure? 262

The Hygiene Hypothesis 263

The Helminth Hypothesis 264

Anthropologist in Action: David Van Sickle and Managing Asthma 267

Conclusion 267

Chapter 9 Globalization, Poverty, and Infectious Disease 269

Emergent and Resurgent Diseases 270

Social Transformations, Colonialism, and Globalizing Infections 273

Smallpox 276

Colonization in the Tropics 279

Colonialism's Health Legacy 282

Climate Change and Emerging/Resurging Diseases 285

Cholera 287

Genetic Adaptation to Cholera 289

Dams and Infectious Disease 291

Tuberculosis: Emerging and Resurging 294

HIV/AIDS: A New Disease 297

Bushmeat Hunting and the Emergence of Human Diseases 300

Anthropologist in Action: Paul Farmer and HIV in Haiti 303

Conclusion 304

Chapter 10 Stress, Social Inequality, and Race and Ethnicity: Implications for Health Disparities 307

Biology of the Stress Response 308

The Nervous System Stress Response 309

The Hormonal Stress Response 310

Why is Stress Different for Humans? 310

Stress and Biological Normalcy 312

Stress and Health 312

Cardiovascular Disease 313

Immune Function 314

Medical Anthropologist in Action: Nancy Schoenberg 318

Child Growth 319

Inequality, Stress, and Health 321

Relative Status 325

Social Cohesion 326

Social Support 328

Race and Ethnicity and Health in the United States 329

BiDil and "Racial Medicine" in the United States 335

Conclusion 337

Chapter 11 Mental Health and Illness 340

The Medical Model in Biocultural Context 341

Culture-Bound Syndromes 345

A French Culture-Bound Syndrome 347

Eating Disorders 351

ADHD and Culture 356

Mood Disorders 358

Depression 359

Bipolar Disorder and Creativity 362

The Evolution of Substance Use and Abuse 365

Schizophrenia 367

Anthropologist in Action: Paul Brodwin 372

Conclusion 375.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 397-433) and index.

ISBN:

0199797080

OCLC:

769818949

Publisher Number:

99953466424