Building a New Biocultural Synthesis

by Goodman, Alan H.

• ISBN13: 9780472066063
• ISBN10: 0472066064
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-10-01
• Publisher: Univ of Michigan Pr

Summary

Anthropology, with its dual emphasis on biology and culture, is--or should be--the discipline most suited to the study of the complex interactions between these aspects of our lives. Unfortunately, since the early decades of this century, biological and cultural anthropology have grown distinct, and a holistic vision of anthropology has suffered. This book brings culture and biology back together in new and refreshing ways. Directly addressing earlier criticisms of biological anthropology,Building a New Biocultural Synthesisconcerns how culture and political economy affect human biology--e.g., people's nutritional status, the spread of disease, exposure to pollution--and how biological consequences might then have further effects on cultural, social, and economic systems. Contributors to the volume offer case studies on health, nutrition, and violence among prehistoric and historical peoples in the Americas; theoretical chapters on nonracial approaches to human variation and the development of critical, humanistic and political ecological approaches in biocultural anthropology; and explorations of biological conditions in contemporary societies in relationship to global changes. Building a New Biocultural Synthesiswill sharpen and enrich the relevance of anthropology for understanding a wide variety of struggles to cope with and combat persistent human suffering. It should appeal to all anthropologists and be of interest to sister disciplines such as nutrition and sociology. Alan H. Goodman is Professor of Anthropology, Hampshire College. Thomas L. Leatherman is Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of South Carolina.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Acknowledgments
Series Introduction
Historical Overview and Theoretical Developments
Traversing the Chasm between Biology and Culture: An Introduction	p. 3
The Evolution of Human Adaptability Paradigms: Toward a Biology of Poverty	p. 43
Political Economy and Social Fields	p. 75
The Development of Critical Medical Anthropology: Implications for Biological Anthropology	p. 93
Case Studies and Examples: Past Populations
Linking Political Economy and Human Biology: Lessons from North American Archaeology	p. 127
The Biological Consequences of Inequality in Antiquity	p. 147
Owning the Sins of the Past: Historical Trends, Missed Opportunities, and New Directions in the Study of Human Remains	p. 171
Nature, Nurture, and the Determinants of Infant Mortality: A Case Study from Massachusetts, 1830-1920	p. 191
Unequal in Death as in Life: A Sociopolitical Analysis of the 1813 Mexico City Typhus Epidemic	p. 229
Case Studies and Examples: Contemporary Populations
Illness, Social Relations, and Household Production and Reproduction in the Andes of Southern Peru	p. 245
On the (Un)Natural History of the Tupi-Monde Indians: Bioanthropology and Change in the Brazilian Amazon	p. 269
The Political Ecology of Population Increase and Malnutrition in Southern Honduras	p. 295
The Biocultural Impact of Tourism on Mayan Communities	p. 317
Poverty and Nutrition in Eastern Kentucky: The Political Economy of Childhood Growth	p. 339
Steps toward a Critical Biological Anthropology
Race, Racism, and Anthropology	p. 359
Beyond European Enlightenment: Toward a Critical and Humanistic Human Biology	p. 379
Latin American Social Medicine and the Politics of Theory	p. 407
Nature, Political Ecology, and Social Practice: Toward an Academic and Political Agenda	p. 425
What Could Be: Biocultural Anthropology for the Next Generation	p. 451
Contributors	p. 475
Index	p. 479
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