The Anthropology of Health and Healing

By (author) Mari Womack

Publication date:

16 December 2009

Length of book:

367 pages

Publisher

AltaMira Press

ISBN-13: 9780759110441

The Anthropology of Health and Healing provides the first holistic approach to the study of medical anthropology. Over the past two decades, medical anthropology has been the most rapidly growing subfield in anthropology, and a number of medial anthropology texts have been published, focusing primarily on public policy and health care delivery systems. Yet while Anthropologists have researched topics related to medical anthropology for over 100 years, here Womack thoroughly surveys this richly diverse field and provides an integrated approach that links together the biological, psychological, social, communicative, epidemiological, philosophical, historical, and developmental factors that shape health and healing.

Chapter 1 Preface: A Tribute to My Teachers
Chapter 2 Introduction: The Anthropology of Health and Healing
Part 3 Part I. The Psychobiology of Health and Healing
Chapter 4 Chapter 1. Models of the Body, the Self, and the Human Experience
Chapter 5 Chapter 2. Constructing Gender: The Body in Social Context
Chapter 6 Chapter 3. The Biology of Psychology and the Psychology of Biology
Chapter 7 Chapter 4. Metaphor, Labeling Theory, and the Placebo Effect
Part 8 Part II. Maintaining Health and Healing the Whole Person
Chapter 9 Chapter 5. The Human Life Cycle: Coming of Age
Chapter 10 Chapter 6. The Human Life Cycle: The Reproductive Years
Chapter 11 Chapter 7. The Human Life Cycle: Growing Old and Growing Good
Chapter 12 Chapter 8. Lifestyle and Health
Part 13 Part III. Models of Diagnosis and Treatment
Chapter 14 Chapter 9. Biomedicine and the Scientific Approach
Chapter 15 Chapter 10. Restoring the Balance: Asian Models of Health and Healing
Chapter 16 Chapter 11. Calling on the Spirits: Shamans, Sorcerers, and Mediums
Chapter 17 Chapter 12. The Emerging Field of Integrative Medicine
Part 18 Part IV. Contemporary Issues in Health and Healing
Chapter 19 Chapter 13. The Social Context of Epidemics
Chapter 20 Chapter 14. Medicines, Herbs, and Dietary Supplements
Chapter 21 Chapter 15. Public Policy and Health-Care Delivery Systems
Chapter 22 Notes
Chapter 23 Glossary
Chapter 24 References
Chapter 25 Index

The Anthropology of Health and Healing beautifully - and accessibly - draws upon new knowledge from such wide-ranging fields as biology, psychology, epidemiology, public health, health services research and human development, along with core insights from anthropology itself, to provide a comprehensive overview of how nature and nurture interact in diverse settings to shape individuals' own illness experiences, along with global patterns of health and disease. The book achieves rare balance in its attention not simply to what makes us sick but to what keeps us healthy, as well.