Critical Medical Anthropology

by Merrill Singer, Hans Baer

Overview

The purpose of this book is to provide an introduction and overview to the critical perspective as it has evolved in medical anthropology over the last ten years. Standing as an opposition approach to conventional medical anthropology, critical medical anthropology has emphasized the importance of political and economy forces, including the exercise of power, in shaping health, disease, illness experience, and health care.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415783767
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	08/14/2018
Series:	Critical Approaches in the Health Social Sciences Series
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	406
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Merrill Singer, Hans Baer

Table of Contents

SECTION A: Orientation
Introduction
Medical Anthropology and its Transformation
The Critical Gaze
Postmodernism Medical Anthropology: A Critique

SECTION B: The Macro-Social Level
Health-Related Issues in Socialist-Oriented Societies: Ideals, Contradictions, and Realities
Studying Up: The Political Economy of Nuclear Regulation

SECTION C: The Intermediate-Social Level
The American Dominative Medical System as a Reflection of Social Relations in the Larger Society
AIDS and the Health Crisis of the U.S. Urban Poor
The Drive for Professionalization in British Osteopathy

SECTION D: The Micro-Social Level
Medical Hegemony, Biomedical Magic, and Folk Medicine: Reproductive Illness among Haitian Women
Prophets and Advisors in African-American Spiritual Churches: Therapy, Palliative, or Opiate?

SECTION E: The Individual Level
Confronting Juan García's Drinking Problem: The Demedicalization of Alcoholism
Cure, Care and Control: Agency and the Structure in the Clinical Encounter

SECTION F: Directions
How Critical Can Clinical Anthropology Be?
Critical Praxis in Medical Anthropology
Topic Index
Name Index

Editorial Reviews

Re-orients medical anthropology by means of a political economic contextualization of its field of study and application, and by way of a re-focus on power and inequality as central explanatory factors. Supplies a critique of postmodern medical anthropology, and discusses health-related issues at the macro-social level, the intermediate- social level, the micro-social level, and the individual level. Topics include the political economy of nuclear regulation, AIDS and the urban poor, and African-American spiritual churches. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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