Introducing Medical Anthropology: A Discipline in Action

by Merrill Singer, Hans A. Baer

This new text provides students with a first exposure to the growing field of medical anthropology. As such, it is guided by three unifying themes. First, medical anthropology is actively engaged in helping to address pressing health problems around the globe through research, intervention, and policy-related initiatives. Second, illness and disease cannot be fully understood or effectively addressed by treating them solely as biological in nature; rather, health problems involve complex biosocial processes and resolving them requires attention to range of factors including systems of belief, structures of social relationship, and environmental conditions. Third, through an examination of health inequalities on the one hand, and environmental degradation and environment-related illness on the other, the authors emphasize the need for a comprehensive medical anthropology that integrates biological, cultural, and social factors, in order to understand the origin of ill health and to contribute to more effective and equitable health care systems.

Genres: Anthropology, Medicine, Nonfiction, Textbooks

252 pages, Paperback

First published September 16, 2007

Reviews

[gly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A necessary, accessible read for concepts that are generally looked over.

[Antonia M · Rating 3 out of 5]

No miente con ser una introducción, quizás demasiado introductorio, para todo público incluso

[Mal Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Ryan Logan · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Mills College Library]

306.461 S61731 2012