1st Edition

Medical Anthropology

Edited By Cecil G. Helman Copyright 2008

    This important volume includes key papers which outline the history, concepts, research findings and recent controversies in medical anthropology - the cross-cultural study of health, illness and medical care. Among the topics covered are transcultural psychiatry, food and nutrition, anthropology of the body, alcohol and drug use, traditional healers, childbirth and bereavement and the applications of medical anthropology to international health issues, such as the HIV/AIDS pandemic, malaria prevention and family planning. It is a valuable resource not only for scholars and students of medical anthropology but also for health professionals working in multi-cultural settings, or in international medical aid programmes.

    Contents: Introduction; Part I Basic Concepts: Food and Nutrition: Food beliefs and practices among British Bangladeshis with diabetes: implications for health education, A.Mu'min Chowdhury, Cecil Helman and Trisha Greenhalgh; The biocultural approach in nutritional anthropology: case studies of malnutrition in Mali, Katherine A. Dettwyler. Alcohol and Drug Use: Crack in Spanish Harlem: culture and economy in the inner city, Philippe Bourgois; Cohesion and division: drinking in a English village, Geoffrey Hunt and Saundra Satterlee. Transcultural Psychiatry: Cultural factors and international epidemiology, Vikram Patel; The heart of what's the matter: the semantics of illness in Iran, Byron J. Good; Heart disease and the cultural construction of time: the Type A behaviour pattern as a Western culture-bound syndrome, Cecil G. Helman; The future of cultural psychiatry: an international perspective, Laurence J. Kirmayer and Harry Minas; The mental health of refugee children and their cultural development, Maurice Eisenbruch; Connectedness versus separateness: applicability of family therapy to Japanese families, Takesh Tamura and Annie Lau. Medical Pluralism and Traditional Healers: Innovative medicine - a case study of a modern healer, C. Simon; Cold or spirits? Choice and ambiguity in Morocco's pluralistic medical system, Bernard Greenwood. Languages of Distress: The semantics of pain in Indian culture and medicine, Judy F. Pugh; The angry liver, the anxious heart and the melancholy spleen, Thomas Ots. Rituals of Childbirth and Death: The technocratic model of birth, Robbie E. Davis-Floyd; McFunerals: the transition of Japanese funerary services, Hikaru Suzuki. Part II Applied Anthropology: International Health: What is 'World Health'?: Globality and constructions of world health, Christopher Keane. Family Planning: Culture and the management of family planning programs, Donald P. Warwick; Indigenous forms of fertility control, Cecil G. Helman. Diarrhoeal Diseases:

    Biography

    Cecil G. Helman

    Prize: Professor Cecil Helman was the winner of the 2008 George Abercrombie Award, one of the highest awards given by the Royal College of General Practitioners and awarded to 'the person who has made an outstanding contribution to the literature of general practice’. 'Some very distinguished and oft-cited contributors have been included alongside some less well-known but nevertheless interesting and accomplished scholars and practitioners, making the book well-rounded and accessible to many audiences. As medical anthropology is an eclectic and multidisciplinary area of study, the editor is to be commended for aiming to make it relevant to as wide a readership as is possible.' Health Sociology Review 'There is a good deal of material of interest in this volume...' Health and History