This new edition introduces students to the growing field of medical anthropology. It reviews the basic perspectives and concepts and the latest debates in the field in a more comprehensive fashion than many other comparable works.
I would give this book more of a 3.5. I actually liked this book. I was forced to read it for a college class. It is written in an easy language that anyone in college should be able to understand. There are a lot of anecdotes and facts throughout the book making it more interesting. The facts are all cited correctly. I would recommend this to anyone that doesn't know a lot.about medical anthropology and needs an introduction. The reason I don't give this book full stars is because it is vied through applied anthropologists. These are people that want to change the world (usually to help those with less civil rights) with their findings. I don't disagree with this nor foci think it is a bad thing. However, both of the main anthropologists that wrote this book view their work like this. Sometimes I felt like this made the text a little.more bias. I would have like to have seen a different type or anthropologist help write this book. That way I can see two different viewpoints instead of one viewpoint being explained in multiple different ways by the same type or scientists.
A detailed yet concise introductory text to medical anthropology, this textbook is written by preeminent medical anthropologists. This textbook is a definite recommend for undergraduates and might even be worthy for graduate students. The book is brief overall for a textbook but can be supplemented as necessary for the students taking the course. Also serves as a good introduction to the field for people not in school but interested in the topic. As an applied, medical anthropologist myself, I appreciated the overall approach of the authors in drawing clear connections to why and how medical anthropology is relevant and applicable to health issues and disparities in our world.
Wish I could give it a lot more stars. I read the 3rd edition which came out last year. Really a wonderfully radical and comprehensive socialist analysis of health and healthcare around the world, focused largely on how capitalism is an absolute contraindication for human life and climate change demands the action of all researchers, scholars and thinkers of every discipline. Refreshing, affirming, accessible and complete. Everybody who cares about health should read this book.