Sex, Gender and Health

by Edited by Tessa M. Pollard , Susan Brin Hyatt

• ISBN13: 9780521592826
• ISBN10: 0521592828
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-09-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

It is widely recognised that men and women in societies all over the world have very different experiences of sickness and health. This collection brings together biological and social anthropologists whose work illustrates how these sub-disciplines have approached the task of explaining such differences. We demonstrate that an understanding of science and culture, using the notions of biological 'sex' and socio-culturally constructed 'gender' are both essential for furthering analyses of men's and women's, boys' and girls' experiences of health and disease. We address the important topics of gender differences in parental care, cardiovascular disease, reproductive health and psychological illness, and look at how the medicalisation of women and their relative absence from models of population health might affect their experiences of preventative health measures. This book will be particularly useful for students on human sciences or anthropology courses, or anyone wishing to gain an interdisciplinary perspective on the subject.

Table of Contents

List of contributors	xi
Preface	xiii
Sex, gender and health: integrating biological and social perspectives	1	(17)
Tessa M. Pollard
Susan Brin Hyatt
From male and female to men and women	1	(5)
Seeking explanations	6	(8)
Science and culture	14	(2)
References	16	(2)
Parental manipulation of postnatal survival and well-being: are parental sex preferences adaptive?	18	(19)
Catherine M. Hill
Helen L. Ball
Introduction	18	(1)
Background: human infanticidal practices	19	(3)
Sex preferences	22	(7)
Proximate cues and sex preferences: a cross-cultural test	29	(3)
General discussion	32	(2)
References	34	(3)
Gender bias in South Asia: effects on child growth and nutritional status	37	(16)
Emily K. Rousham
Introduction: biological differences in male and female child mortality	37	(1)
Gender bias in South Asia	38	(5)
Socio-economic and temporal variation in female undernutrition: a case study from Bangladesh	43	(2)
Sex differences in growth	45	(3)
Evidence of catch-up growth	48	(1)
Summary	49	(1)
References	50	(3)
Sex, gender and cardiovascular disease	53	(22)
Tessa M. Pollard
Modernisation and cardiovascular disease	54	(1)
Modernisation and oestrogen	55	(6)
Gender, stress and the role of oestrogen	61	(9)
Conclusion	70	(1)
References	71	(4)
Social meanings and sexual bodies: gender, sexuality and barriers to women's health care	75	(19)
Lenore Manderson
The social context of health and illness	75	(2)
Reproductive imperatives	77	(3)
Reproductive tract infections	80	(4)
Prevention of HIV	84	(1)
The sexualisation of non-sexual infections	85	(3)
Conclusions	88	(1)
References	89	(5)
Poverty and the medicalisation of motherhood	94	(24)
Susan Brin Hyatt
Medicalisation and modernity	94	(3)
The story of a `deviant' woman	97	(3)
Poor bodies as objects of knowledge	100	(6)
The medicalised mother	106	(7)
Endnotes	113	(1)
Acknowledgements	114	(1)
References	115	(3)
The vanishing woman: gender and population health	118	(19)
Patricia A. Kaufert
Who are the scientists?	120	(3)
Reading the text	123	(2)
The Whitehall studies	125	(2)
Adding in the women	127	(3)
Setting the context	130	(2)
The demand to be recognised	132	(1)
Conclusion	133	(1)
References	134	(3)
Agency, opposition and resistance: a systemic approach to psychological illness in sub-dominant groups	137	(25)
Roland Littlewood
Overdoses: woman's violence against herself	139	(3)
Comparative perspectives	142	(5)
Function and opposition	147	(4)
The `mystical pressure' of Western medicine: spirits and diseases	151	(2)
Why women?	153	(3)
Endnotes	156	(1)
Acknowledgements	157	(1)
References	157	(5)
Glossary	162	(4)
Index	166