A Companion to Medical Anthropology examines the current issues, controversies, and state of the field in medical anthropology today. Provides an expert view of the major topics and themes to concern the discipline since its founding in the 1960s Written by leading international scholars in medical anthropology Covers environmental health, global health, biotechnology, syndemics, nutrition, substance abuse, infectious disease, and sexuality and reproductive health, and other topics

A Companion to Medical Anthropology examines the current issues, controversies, and state of the field in medical anthropology today.* Provides an expert view of the major topics and themes to concern the discipline since its founding in the 1960s* Written by leading international scholars in medical anthropology* Covers environmental health, global health, biotechnology, syndemics, nutrition, substance abuse, infectious disease, and sexuality and reproductive health, and other topics

Synopsis of Contents viiiList of Figures xixList of Tables xxNotes on Contributors xxiAcknowledgments - Personal xxxiiAcknowledgments - Sources xxxiiiIntroduction 1Part I Theories, Applications, and Methods 71 Medical Anthropology in Disciplinary Context: DefinitionalStruggles and Key Debates (or Answering the Cri Du Coeur) 9Elisa J. Sobo2 Critical Biocultural Approaches in Medical Anthropology29Tom Leatherman and Alan H. Goodman3 Applied Medical Anthropology: Praxis, Pragmatics, Politicsand Promises 49Robert T. Trotter, II4 Research Design and Methods in Medical Anthropology 69Clarence C. Gravlee5 Medical Anthropology and Public Policy 93Merrill EisenbergPart II Contexts and Conditions 1176 Culture and the Stress Process 119William W. Dressler7 Global Health 135Craig R. Janes and Kitty K. Corbett8 Syndemics in Global Health 159Merrill Singer, D. Ann Herring, Judith Littleton, and MelanieRock9 The Ecology of Disease and Health 181Patricia K. Townsend10 The Medical Anthropology of Water 197Linda M. Whiteford and Cecilia Vindrola Padros11 Political Violence, War and Medical Anthropology 219Barbara Rylko-Bauer and Merrill SingerPart III Health and Behavior 25112 Humans in a World of Microbes: The Anthropology of InfectiousDisease 253Peter J. Brown, George J. Armelagos, and Kenneth C. Maes13 Sexuality, Medical Anthropology, and Public Health 271Pamela I. Erickson14 Situating Birth in the Anthropology of Reproduction 289Carolyn Sargent and Lauren Gulbas15 Nutrition and Health 305David A. Himmelgreen, Nancy Romero Daza and Charlotte A.Noble16 Anthropologies of Cancer and Risk, Uncertainty and Disruption323Lenore Manderson17 Generation RX: Anthropological Research on PharmaceuticalEnhancement, Lifestyle Regulation, Self-Medication and RecreationalDrug Use 339Gilbert Quintero and Mark Nichter18 Anthropology and the Study of Illicit Drug Use 357J. Bryan PagePart IV Healthwork: Care, Treatment, and Communication37919 Ethnomedicine 381Marsha B. Quinlan20 Medical Pluralism: An Evolving and Contested Concept inMedical Anthropology 405Hans A. Baer21 Biotechnologies of Care 425Julie Park and Ruth Fitzgerald22 Social Interaction and Technology: Cultural Competency andthe Universality of Good Manners 443Kathryn Coe, Gail Barker, and Craig Palmer23 Biocommunicability 459Charles L. Briggs24 Anthropology at the End of Life 477Ron BarrettPart V The Road Ahead 49125 Operationalizing a Right to Health: Theorizing a NationalHealth System as a "Commons" 493Sandy Smith-Nonini and Beverly Bell26 As the Future Explodes into the Present: Emergent Issues andthe Tomorrow of Medical Anthropology 515Merrill Singer and Pamela I. EricksonIndex 533