Medical Anthropology: A Biocultural Approach

by Wiley, Andrea S; Allen, John S

• ISBN13: 9780195308839
• ISBN10: 0195308832
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-08-14
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Medical anthropology encompasses a wide range of perspectives as it seeks to understand human health and illness. An ideal core text for introductory courses, Medical Anthropology: A Biocultural Approach provides a current and accessible overview of this diverse and rapidly expanding field. Working from a iocultural approach, Medical Anthropology examines the major health issues that affect most human societies, describing and synthesizing the ways in which biology, culture, health, and environment interact. It integrates up-to-date and relevant biological data with analyses of both evolutionary theory and the sociocultural conditions that often lead to major challenges to our health and survival. Authors Andrea S. Wiley and John S. Allen first present basic biological information on a specific health condition and then extend their investigation to include evolutionary, historical, sociocultural, and political-economic perspectives. Topics covered include healers and healing; health, diet, and nutrition; child health, growth, and development; reproductive health; aging; infectious disease; behavioral disease; stress, social inequality, and race; and mental illness. Each chapter features a variety of case studies and examples--current and historical, local and global--that demonstrate how a medical anthropological perspective can shed important light on a particular health condition. In addition, the text is enhanced by numerous tables, figures, review questions, critical thinking questions, suggestions for accompanying ethnographies, and a glossary to help students better understand the material. Throughout the text, the authors consider how a biocultural anthropological approach could be applied to more effective prevention and treatment efforts. They also highlight the ways in which medical anthropology has the potential to help improve the health of populations around the world.

Author Biography

Andrea S. Wiley is Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Human Biology Lab at Indiana University. She is the author of An Ecology of High-Altitude Infancy: A Biocultural Perspective (2004) as well as numerous articles in medical anthropology and related fields.
John S. Allen is Research Scientist at the Dornsife Cognitive Neuroscience Imaging Center and the Brain and Creativity Institute, University of Southern California, where he is also Adjunct Research Associate Professor of Anthropology. He is a coauthor of Biological Anthropology: The Natural History of Humankind, Second Edition (2008).

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
The Culture Concept	p. 4
A Biocultural Perspective	p. 5
Looking Ahead	p. 8
Anthropological Perspectives on Health and Disease	p. 10
Definitions of Health	p. 10
Disease	p. 11
Illness	p. 12
Sickness	p. 13
The Locus of Health: The Body and Society	p. 17
Biological/Medical Normalcy	p. 18
Evolutionary Perspectives on Health	p. 19
Adaptability	p. 22
Behavioral Adaptability	p. 23
Cultural Approaches in Medical Anthropology	p. 26
Power Differentials and Health	p. 26
Ethnomedical Systems	p. 27
Interpretive Approaches to Illness and Suffering	p. 29
Applied Medical Anthropology	p. 31
Epidemiology	p. 32
Conclusion	p. 34
Healers and Healing	p. 36
Culture and Healing Systems	p. 37
Recruitment: How Healers Become Healers	p. 44
Alternative and Complementary Medicines	p. 49
Acupuncture	p. 51
Chiropractic	p. 53
Navajo Medicine	p. 55
When Biomedicine Is Alternative Medicine	p. 57
Death as a Biocultural Concept	p. 60
Placebo and Nocebo	p. 66
Conclusion	p. 68
Diet and Nutrition in Health and Disease	p. 71
Fundamentals of Nutrition	p. 72
Digestive Physiology	p. 76
An Evolutionary Approach to Nutrition	p. 78
Nutrition and Chronic Diseases	p. 86
Obesity	p. 89
Diabetes	p. 96
Lactose Intolerance	p. 100
Salt and Hypertension	p. 102
Celiac Disease	p. 103
Conclusion	p. 104
Growth and Development	p. 107
Life History Theory	p. 107
Gestation: The First 40 Weeks of Growth and Development	p. 109
Infancy	p. 116
Childhood	p. 120
Small but Healthy?	p. 121
Is Bigger Better?	p. 123
Puberty and the Onset of Adolescence	p. 128
Teenage Pregnancy in the United States	p. 129
Sex, Gender, Growth and Health	p. 131
Environmental Toxins and Growth	p. 133
The End of Childhood: Transitions to Adulthood	p. 135
Reproductive Health	p. 138
Medicalization of Women's Health and Reproductive Health	p. 138
Menstruation	p. 139
Premenstrual Syndrome	p. 146
Determinants of Fertility	p. 147
Infertility	p. 151
Falling Sperm Counts: Environmental Causes of Male Reproductive Health Problems	p. 155
Female Genital Cutting	p. 158
Pregnancy	p. 161
Birth	p. 165
Mothering	p. 171
Menopause	p. 176
Reproductive Events and Breast Cancer Risk	p. 178
Conclusion	p. 181
Aging	p. 184
The Aging Body	p. 186
Physiological Theories of Aging	p. 192
Somatic Mutations	p. 192
Free Radicals	p. 192
Wear and Degeneration	p. 193
Evolutionary Theories of Aging	p. 194
The Aging Brain	p. 196
Extending Life? Caloric Restriction and an Okinawa Case Study	p. 202
Health, Illness, and the Cultural Construction of Aging	p. 207
Conclusion	p. 212
Infectious Disease: Introduction to Pathogens and the Immune System	p. 215
Koch's Postulates	p. 217
Taxonomy of Infectious Disease	p. 218
Viruses	p. 219
Bacteria	p. 220
Protozoa	p. 222
Fungi	p. 223
Worms	p. 224
Prions	p. 225
How Pathogens Spread	p. 225
Human Defenses against Pathogens	p. 226
The Immune Response	p. 229
How Does the Immune System Recognize Pathogens?	p. 230
How Does the Immune System Respond to a Recognized Pathogen?	p. 232
Pathogen Strategies for Avoiding Immune Destruction	p. 236
Concealment	p. 236
Antigenic Drift and Shift	p. 236
Immunosuppression	p. 237
Variation in Immune Response	p. 240
Variation in the MHC	p. 240
Undernutrition and Immune Response	p. 240
Allergies and Asthma: Relationship to Infectious Disease Exposure?	p. 241
The Hygiene Hypothesis	p. 242
The Helminth Hypothesis	p. 243
Variation in Pathogen Virulence	p. 246
Conclusion	p. 251
Historical Perspectives on Infectious Disease in Human Populations	p. 254
Origins of Infections in Humans	p. 255
Agriculture's Effects on Infectious Disease	p. 256
The Globalization of Infection	p. 264
Smallpox	p. 268
Colonization in the Tropics	p. 272
Immigration, War, and Infection	p. 280
Bioterrorism and Biological Warfare	p. 280
The 1918 Influenza Epidemic	p. 281
Conclusion	p. 283
Emerging and Resurging Infections: Biocultural Interactions between Humans and Pathogens	p. 286
Emergent and Resurgent Diseases	p. 287
Malaria: An Early "Emergent" Disease	p. 290
Malaria Life Cycle and Pathogencity	p. 291
Genetic Adaptations to Malaria	p. 293
Behavioral Adaptations to Malaria	p. 298
Efforts to Control Malaria	p. 299
Malaria as a Resurgent Disease	p. 300
Cholera	p. 301
Genetic Adaptation to Cholera: Cystic Fibrosis Alleles	p. 301
Ecology of Cholera Resurgence	p. 303
Dams and Infectious Disease	p. 304
Onchocerciasis	p. 305
Schistosomiasis	p. 305
HIV/AIDS: A New Disease	p. 309
How HIV Works	p. 310
Cultural Responses to HIV	p. 311
Origins of HIV	p. 312
Tuberculosis: A Resurgent Disease	p. 316
Biology and Pathogenicity of TB	p. 316
TB as a Resurgent Disease	p. 317
Conclusion	p. 321
Stress, Social Inequality, and Race and Ethnicity: Implications for Health Disparities	p. 324
Biology of the Stress Response	p. 325
The Nervous System Stress Response	p. 326
The Hormonal Stress Response	p. 327
Why Is Stress Different for Humans?	p. 327
Stress and Biological Normalcy	p. 329
Stress and Health	p. 330
Cardiovascular Disease	p. 330
Immune Function	p. 332
Immunosuppression	p. 332
Autoimmunity	p. 334
Child Growth	p. 336
Inequality, Stress, and Health	p. 338
Relative Status	p. 342
Social Cohesion	p. 343
Social Support	p. 345
Race and Ethnicity and Health in the United States	p. 346
Conclusion	p. 354
Mental Health and Illness	p. 357
The Medical Model in Biocultural Context	p. 358
Culture-Bound Syndromes	p. 363
Eating Disorders	p. 369
ADHD and Culture	p. 374
Mood Disorders	p. 376
Depression	p. 376
Bipolar Disorder and Creativity	p. 380
Schizophrenia	p. 385
Conclusion	p. 390
Epilogue: The Relevance of Medical Anthropology	p. 392
What Can I Do Next if I Am Interested in Medical Anthropology?	p. 395
Graduate Programs in Anthropology	p. 395
Public Health programs	p. 396
Medical Schools and Clinical Health Professions	p. 396
Work in Governmental and Nongovernmental Health Agencies	p. 397
Glossary	p. 398
References Cited	p. 412
Index	p. 444
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