Review by Choice Review
The first chapter of this concise introduction to medical anthropology asks, "Why have a medical anthropology?" Singer (Hispanic Health Council, Hartford, CT) and Baer (Univ. of Melbourne) answer with three case studies that apply medical anthropology to cystic fibrosis, dengue, and pesticide poisoning among farm workers. To answer "What do medical anthropologists do?" the authors present four case studies: indigenous healing in Madagascar, "surgeon culture" in a modern teaching hospital, a folk illness system in Haiti, and urban nomads in Seattle. Other chapters deal with conceptions of health and illness, ethnomedicine, medical pluralism (coexistence of different healing traditions in the same society), health disparities and inequalities in the US and elsewhere, and the impact on health of natural and socially constructed environments. The authors adhere to "critical medical anthropology," which contends that explanations of health-related beliefs in terms of cultural configurations, psychological factors, or local ecologies are overly narrow, arguing that such approaches offer insights, but at the cost of ignoring the wider determinants of human decision making and behavior. The volume argues that people and communities develop their own perceptions of and responses to illness, but do so in a world not of their making. An appendix lists varied source materials for students. Summing Up: Recommended. All academic levels/libraries. E. Wellin emeritus, University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
