A Companion to Medical Anthropology

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.

A Companion to Medical Anthropology, Second Edition provides readers with a wide-ranging exploration of the world’s health systems and healing practices from an anthropological perspective. Specially commissioned articles written by leading international scholars investigate how global, historical, cultural, economic, and political factors influence the ways health and illness are experienced and understood. The contributors critically evaluate and interpret an array of contemporary issues, debates, and controversies while discussing theoretical and methodological advances, emerging trends, and future research directions.

Fully updated throughout, the second edition of the companion addresses the most recent developments in the anthropology of health and medicine. New and revised entries cover topics including anthropological approaches to migration and health, political violence and war, poverty, malnutrition, illicit drug abuse, climate change, biomedicine, syndemics, ethnomedicines, COVID-19, medical pluralism, the ecology of health and disease, and more.

A Companion to Medical Anthropology, Second Edition remains the definitive reference work for scholars, educators, and researchers in the dynamic, rapidly growing field. It is also an excellent textbook for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in medical anthropology, ethnomedicine, global health care, and medical policy.