Medical Anthropology A Biocultural Approach

Medical Anthropology: A Biocultural Approach, Fourth Edition, offers an accessible and contemporary overview of this rapidly expanding field. For each health issue examined in the text, the authors first present basic biological information and then expand their analysis to include evolutionary, historical, and cross-cultural perspectives on how these issues emerged and are understood. Medical Anthropology considers how a biocultural approach can be applied to more effective prevention and treatment efforts and underscores medical anthropology's potential to improve health around the world.

Andrea S. Wiley is Professor and Chair of Anthropology at Indiana University, Bloomington.

John S. Allen is Research Associate in the Department of Anthropology at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Preface: A Biocultural Approach to Medical Anthropology
What is Distinctive About This Text
What Is New In This Edition
Outline of the Book
Acknowledgments

Chapter 1: Introduction: A Biolcultural Approach to Medical Anthropology
What Is Anthropology?
The Development of Medical Anthropology
What is Medical Anthropology?
The Culture Concept
A Biocultural Perspective
Looking Ahead

Chapter 2: Anthropological Perspectives on Health and Disease
Definitions of Health
Disease
Illness
Sickness
Health, Ethics, and Cultural Relativism
The Locus of Health: The Body and Society
Biological Normalcy
Evolutionary Perspectives on Health
Adaptability
Behavioral Adaptability
Cultural Approaches in Medical Anthropology
Political Economy of Health
Ethnomedical Systems
Interpretive Approaches to Illness and Suffering
Applied Medical Anthropology
Epidemiology
Conclusion

Chapter 3: Healers and Healing
Culture and Healing Systems
Recruitment: How Healers Become Healers
Alternative and Complementary Medicines
Acupuncture
Chiropractic
Navajo Medicine
When Biomedicine is Alternative Medicine
Alternative Biomedicines
Death as a Biocultural Concept
Placebo and Nocebo
Harnessing the Power of the Placebo
Efficacy
Vaccination and Anti-Vaxx Movements
Conclusion

Chapter 4: Diet and Nutrition in Health and Disease
Human Nutrition
How Many Nutrients Do You Need?
Diet and Digestion
Nutrition Transitions in Human Prehistory and History
Evolutionary History: Hunter Gatherer and "Paleo" Diets
Agricultural Transition
Post Agricultural Dietary Adaptations and Challenges
Lactase persistence/non-persistence and Lactose intolerance
Celiac Disease
Barry Popkin's Nutrition Transition: Globalization and Ultra-Processing
Obesity
Diabetes
Future Nutrition Transitions and Sustainability Concerns
Conclusion

Chapter 5: Child Growth and Health
Life History Theory
Gestation: The First 38 Weeks of Growth and Development
Infancy
Childhood
Small But Healthy?
Is Bigger Better?
Sex, Gender, Growth, and Health
Environmental Toxins and Growth
Puberty and the Onset of Adolescence
Teenage Pregnancy in the United States
Conclusion

Chapter 6: Reproductive Health in Biocultural Context
Medicalization of Women's Health and Reproductive Health
Menstruation
Premenstruation Syndrome
Determinations of Fertility
Infertility
The Medicalization of Male Sexual Dysfunction
Female Genital Cutting
Pregnancy
Bird
Mothering
Bed-Sharing and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
Menopause
Reproductive Events and Breast Cancer Risk
Conclusion

Chapter 7: Aging
The Aging Body
Physiological Theories of Aging
Somatic Mutations
Free Radicals
Wear and Degeneration
Telomeres
Evolutionary Theories of Aging
The Aging Brain
Alzheimer's Disease, Genes, and Evolution
Extending Life? Caloric Restriction and an Okinawa Case Study
Health, Illness, and the Cultural Construction of Aging
The Future of Aging

Chapter 8: Infectious Diseases: Pathogens, Hosts, and Evolutionary Interplay
Koch's Postulates
Taxonomy of Infectious Disease
Viruses
Bacteria
Protozoa
Fungi
Worms
Prions
How Pathogens Spread
Human Defenses Against Pathogens
The Immune Response: A Brief Overview
Human-Pathogen Coevolution
Malaria: A Post-Agricultural Disease
Evolutionary Changes in Pathogens
Antibiotic Resistance
Variation in Pathogen Virulence
Allergies and Asthma: Relationship to Infectious Disease Exposure?
Conclusion

Chapter 9: Globalization, Poverty, and Infectious Disease
Emergent and Resurgent Diseases
Social Transformations, Colonialism, and Globalizing Infections
Smallpox
Colonialism and Disease in the Tropics
Colonialism's Health Legacy
Climate Change and Emerging/Resuring Diseases
Cholera
Genetic Adaptation to Cholera
Dams and Infectious Disease
Ebola: The Quintessential "Emerging Disease"
Tuberculosis: Emerging and Resuring
HIV/AIDS: A New(ish) Disease
Conclusion

Chapter 10: Stress, Social Inequality, and Race and Ethnicity
Biology of the Stress Response
The Nervous System Stress Response
The Hormonal Stress Response
Why is Stress Different for Humans?
Stress and Biological Normalcy?
Stress and Health
Cardiovascular Disease
Immune Function
Child Growth
Inequality, Stress, and Health
Relative Status
Social Cohesion
Social Support
Race/Ethnicity, Racism/Discrimination and Health in the United States
Conclusion

Chapter 11: Mental Health and Illness
The Medical Model in Biocultural Context
Culture-Bound Syndromes
Eating Disorders
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Culture
Mood Disorders
Depression
Bipolar Disorder and Creativity
The Evolution of Substance Use and Abuse
Schizophrenia
Sleep
Conclusion

Epilogue: The Relevance of Medical Anthropology
What Can I Do Next If I am Interested in Medical Anthropology?
Graduate Programs in Anthropology
Public Health Programs
Medical Schools and Clinical Health Professions
Work in Governmental and Nongovernmental Health Agencies
Genetic Counseling

Glossary
References