[Ebook PDF] Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology, 3rd Edition

• Delivery: Can be download Immediately after purchasing
• Version: Only PDF Version.
• Compatible Devices: Can be read on any devices (Kindle, NOOK, Android/IOS devices, Windows, MAC)
• Quality: High Quality. No missing contents. Printable

_____________________________________________________________

Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology, 3rd Edition

ISBN-13: 978-1629582917
ISBN-10: 1629582913

Author: Peter J. Brown (Editor), Svea Closser (Editor)

The editors of the third edition of the seminal textbook Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology bring it completely up to date for both instructors and students. The collection of 49 readings (17 of them new to this edition) offers extensive background description and exposes students to the breadth of theoretical, methodological, and practical perspectives and issues in the field of medical anthropology. The text provides specific examples and case studies of research as it is applied to a range of health settings: from cross-cultural clinical encounters to cultural analysis of new biomedical technologies and the implementation of programs in global health settings. The new edition features:

• a major revision that eliminates many older readings in favor of more fresh, relevant selections.

• a new section on structural violence that looks at the impact of poverty and other forms of social marginalization on health.

• an updated and expanded section on “Conceptual Tools,” including new research and ideas that are currently driving the field of medical anthropology forward (such as epigenetics and syndemics);

• new chapters on climate change, Ebola, PTSD among Iraq/Afghanistan veterans, eating disorders, and autism, among others.

• recent articles from Margaret Mead Award winners Sera Young, Seth Holmes, and Erin Finley, along with new articles by such established medical anthropologists as Paul Farmer and Merrill Singer.

To the instructor
Teaching medical anthropology is both exciting and challenging. Undergraduates are able to relate to sickness and healing because they have had some limited experience with them. Of course, many of your
students are thinking of careers in the health care industry. Learning about the multiple causes of disease and the cultural variation in healing practices makes students examine their own lives and culture with a fresh perspective; one of the real satisfactions of being a teacher comes from watching students get excited by such an intellectual journey. It is also satisfying when students become increasingly aware of
the health problems of others, especially the poor at home and around the world. At the same time, teaching medical anthropology is challenging because of its amorphous nature and the astounding growth of the body of theory and knowledge. How does a professor organize such a course? How do you decide what examples to use?
This book is divided into two main parts. Part I illustrates the variety of theoretical and analytical approaches used by medical anthropologists. Part II provides examples of those approaches as they relate to a variety of health issues and problems; hence the title of the reader—Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology. The first part of the book makes apparent that we hold a very broad view of the scope of medical anthropology and that we are committed to the traditional four-field approach of general anthropology. We believe that the application of anthropological knowledge—the job of making our research useful—is part of the responsibility of all anthropologists. Aspects of nearly all anthropological work are relevant to understanding and solving human problems. That is why we use the term applying medical anthropology rather than the narrower and more specific applied anthropology (in both this and other edited readers). The latter term refers to anthropological work done by an applied anthropologist for a client on a problem identified by the client. We think students want to read about anthropological research and analysis on relevant topics, and the second part of the collection provides some good examples of such work. At times we have included two or more selections on a similar topic in order to enhance in-class discussions. Thus, the organization of this book suits a heterogeneous approach to a medical anthropology course.
As far as we can tell, there is no agreement about how a basic course in medical anthropology should be taught. Almost 35 years ago, the first special publication of the new Society for Medical Anthropology
(SMA) concerned teaching medical anthropology; the volume included nine different model courses (Todd and Ruffini 1979*). The diversity of those courses— ranging from ethnomedicine, to biomedical anthropology, to family structure and health—was impressive. Today, the SMA website has a section on teaching resources that includes more than 50 syllabi. Theoretical diversity has been a continuing hallmark of medical anthropology, and its importance is reflected in most of the edited textbooks of the field.
However, the relatively few regular textbooks in the field have had, by necessity, a narrower theoretical focus, such as the ecological approach (McElroy and Townsend 1996) and the cultural aspects of healing and medicine (Foster and Anderson 1978; Helman 1994; Strathern and Stewart 2010). Recently some new books have provided a synthesis of medical anthropology, even as the discipline has expanded, and the theoretical basis of research has become more sophisticated (Anderson 1996; Hahn 1995; Janzen 2001; Joralemon 1999; Nichter 2009; Singer and Baer 2012: Wiley and Allen 2008; Winkelman 2008).

NEW TO THE THIRD EDITION
One of the main challenges in revising this reader has been to update it without completely changing a text that has been warmly received. The combination of newer articles and “classics” was designed for maximum pedagogical benefit. We believe that the new selections are great vehicles for teaching and encouraging class discussion. Many new articles are original to this reader, written with an undergraduate audience in mind. We think that these new chapters—written by many of the field’s leaders, including a number of Margaret Mead Award winners—convey clearly to undergraduates the current vitality and relevance of medical anthropology.
We have reorganized the section and subsection headings to fit current themes in medical anthropology. In addition to section and article introductions—with thought questions for your students—a
context box appears at the end of the introduction to each selection; these short pieces are intended for more advanced students interested in knowing where the articles fit within the intellectual history.
of medical anthropology—and they often describe the author’s larger research agenda and discuss why this particular article was written. This background information can help students to appreciate the reading more fully. (The article’s original source citation, when applicable, appears on the bottom of the chapter-opening page, along with the book’s copyright statement.)
Over the years we have heard positive feedback about the conceptual tools introduction, especially from students. Therefore, we have updated and expanded these bullet points where appropriate.