The anthropology of medicine : from culture to method

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The anthropology of medicine : from culture to method

edited by Lola Romanucci-Ross, Daniel E. Moerman, Laurence R. Tancredi

Bergin & Garvey, 1991

2nd ed

  • : pbk

Available at  / 20 libraries

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Note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Volume

ISBN 9780897892629

Description

This revision of what now has become a classic text in medical anthropology contains a wealth of new material on subjects as diverse as aging, creativity, and ideology. It is both a comprehensive introduction to the rapidly growing field of medical anthropology and a reference work. The authors bring new perspectives to our understanding of both Western and non-Western medicine, from the biochemical and physiological aspects of health care in preindustrialized cultures to cultural and ideological factors inherent in past and present Western medical care. The contributors to this volume examine the acculturation process of healer, physician, and patient in diverse cultural settings. They explore the social and cultural context of medical events as well as the process of medical thought and problem solving. Medicine, they illustrate, embraces or is embraced by both the cultural and biological dimensions of mankind. From this perspective they show how human belief, knowledge, and action structure the experience of disease and affect the ways in which doctors, healers and patients experience illness and influence the matrix of decision making. This book is intended for students and professionals in anthropology, medicine, and all social sciences.

Table of Contents

  • Preface: the cultural context of medicine and the biohuman paradigm. Part 1 Interaction of medical systems: creativity in illness - methodological linkages to the logic and language of science in folk pursuit of health in central Italy, Lola Romanucci-Ross
  • Aztec and European medicine in the new world, 1521-1600, Clara Sue Kidwell
  • traditional medicine and Western medical options among the Ningerum of Papua New Guinea, Robert L. Welsch
  • doctors or deceivers? - the Siberian Khanty Shaman and Soviet medicine, Marjorie Mandelstem Belzer. Part 2 Symbols and healing: phantoms and physicians - social change through medical pluralism, Libbet Crandon-Malamud
  • anarchy, abjection and absurdity - a case of metamorphic medicine among the Tawba of Zaire, Allen F. Roberts
  • physiology and symbols - the anthropological implications of the placebo effect, Daniel E. Moerman. Part 3 Empirical analyses of non-Western medical practices and medical ecology: poisoned apples and honeysuckles - the medicinal plants of native America, Daniel E. Moerman
  • the evolution of human nutrition, Barry Bogin
  • zoonoses and the origins of old and new world viral diseases, Linda M. Van Blerham
  • naturally occurring dietary antibiotics and human health, Margaret Keith and George J. Armelagos
  • recasting malaria, medicine and meals - a perspective on disease adaptation, Nina L. Etkin and Paul J. Rass. Part 4 Psychiatry in modern medicine - problematics for its transcultural applications: psychiatry, the law, and cultural determinants of behavior, Lola Romanucci-Ross and Laurence R. Tancredi
  • ideology and power - epidemiology and interpretation in law and psychiatry, Laurence R. Tancredi and David N. Weisstub
  • psychosomatic illness in the Chinese cultural context, Jen-Yi Wang
  • pangolins and advocates - vulnerability and self-protection in a mental patients' rights agency, Lawrence B. Radine. Part 5 Modern medicine - social structure and ritual in biomedicine: stress and its management - the cultural construction of an illness and its treatment, Robert Kugelmann
  • the extraneous factor in Western medicine, Lola Romanucci-Ross and Daniel E. Moerman
  • the aging - legal and ethical personhood in culture change, Laurence R. Tancredi and Lola Romanucci-Ross
  • "medical anthropology" - convergence of mind and experience in the anthropological imagination, Lola Romanucci-Ross et al.
Volume

: pbk ISBN 9780897892636

Description

This long awaited revision of what now has become the classic text in medical anthropology contains a wealth of new material on subjects as diverse as aging, creativity, and ideology. Originally cited in American Anthropologist as must reading for all medical anthropologists, physicians, advanced medical anthropology students and advanced medical students, this new edition should prove twice as valuable. It is both a comprehensive introduction to the rapidly growing field of medical anthropology and a state-of-the-art reference work. The authors bring new perspectives to our understanding of both Western and non-Western medicine, from the biochemical and physiological aspects of health care in preindustrialized cultures to cultural and ideological factors inherent in past and present Western medical care. The contributors to this volume examine the acculturation process of healer, physician, and patient in diverse cultural settings. They explore the social and cultural context of medical events as well as the process of medical thought and problem solving. Medicine, they illustrate, embraces or is embraced by both the cultural and biological dimensions of mankind. From this perspective they show how human belief, knowledge, and action structure the experience of disease and affect the ways in which doctors, healers, and patients experience illness and influence the matrix of decision making. This book is essential for students and professionals in anthropology, medicine, and all social sciences.

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