An Anthropology of Biomedicine

by Margaret M. Lock, Vinh-Kim Nguyen

In this fully revised and updated second edition of An Anthropology of Biomedicine, authors Lock and Nguyen introduce biomedicine from an anthropological perspective, exploring the entanglement of material bodies with history, environment, culture, and politics. Drawing on historical and ethnographic work, the book critiques the assumption made by the biological sciences of a universal human body that can be uniformly standardized. It focuses on the ways in which the application of biomedical technologies brings about radical changes to societies at large based on socioeconomic inequalities and ethical disputes, and develops and integrates the theory that the human body in health and illness is not an ontological given but a moveable, malleable entity.

This second edition includes new chapters on: microbiology and the microbiome; global health; and, the self as a socio-technical system. In addition, all chapters have been comprehensively revised to take account of developments from within this fast-paced field, in the intervening years between publications. References and figures have also been updated throughout.

This highly-regarded and award-winning textbook (Winner of the 2010 Prose Award for Archaeology and Anthropology) retains the character and features of the previous edition. Its coverage remains broad, including discussion of: biomedical technologies in practice; anthropologies of medicine; biology and human experiments; infertility and assisted reproduction; genomics, epigenomics, and uncertain futures; and molecularizing racial difference, ensuring it remains the essential text for students of anthropology, medical anthropology as well as public and global health.

Genres: Anthropology, Science, Biology, Nonfiction, School, Medicine

560 pages, Paperback

First published March 4, 2010

About the author

Margaret Lock FRSC is a distinguished Canadian medical anthropologist, known for her publications in connection with an anthropology of the body and embodiment, comparative epistemologies of medical knowledge and practice, and the global impact of emerging biomedical technologies.

Reviews

[Jonathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit disappointing. It reads like a survey of the last 30 years of medical history, anthropology, and sociology, with a lean to the theory. If you’ve been reading in those areas, there’s not as much new here as I’d hoped.

[Amelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

systematically challenging the assumptions at the heart of the practice of bio-medicine. Nicely done.

[Jenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing new here.