Research on health involves evaluating the disparities that are systematically associated with the experience of risk, including genetic and physiological variation, environmental exposure to poor nutrition and disease, and social marginalization. This volume provides a unique perspective - a comparative approach to the analysis of health disparities and human adaptability - and specifically focuses on the pathways that lead to unequal health outcomes. From an explicitly anthropological perspective situated in the practice and theory of biosocial studies, this book combines theoretical rigor with more applied and practice-oriented approaches and critically examines infectious and chronic diseases, reproduction, and nutrition.

Research on health involves evaluating the disparities that are systematically associated with the experience of risk, including genetic and physiological variation, environmental exposure to poor nutrition and disease, and social marginalization. This volume provides a unique perspective - a comparative approach to the analysis of health disparities and human adaptability - and specifically focuses on the pathways that lead to unequal health outcomes. From an explicitly anthropological perspective situated in the practice and theory of biosocial studies, this book combines theoretical rigor with more applied and practice-oriented approaches and critically examines infectious and chronic diseases, reproduction, and nutrition.

List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Boxes

Foreword: Framing Risk, Adversity and Health
Alan Goodman

Introduction: Health, Risk, Adversity: A Contextual View from Anthropology
Catherine Panter-Brick and Agustín Fuentes

PART I: HEALTH RISKS AND DISEASES IN TRANSITION

Commentary I: Understanding Health Past and Present
Charlotte Roberts

Chapter 1. Health Consequences of Social and Ecological Adversity Among Indigenous Siberian Populations: Biocultural and Evolutionary Implications
William R Leonard, J Josh Snodgrass and Mark V Sorenson

Chapter 2. A Multidisciplinary Approach to Understanding the Risk and Context of Emerging Primate-borne Zoonoses
Lisa Jones-Engel and Gregory Engel

Chapter 3. Viral Panic, Vulnerability and the Next Pandemic
Ann Herring

Appendix I: Was the 1918 Pandemic Caused by a Bird Flu Virus?
Appendix II: Applying the Syndemic Approach: Whooping Cough at York

PART II: GENERATIONAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL CHANGE

Commentary II: Thinking About Health Through Time and Across Generations
Darna Dufour

Chapter 4. Adaptation, Health and the Temporal Domain of Human Reproductive Physiology
Peter Ellison and Grazyna Jasienska

Chapter 5. Changes in Risk Factors for Breast Cancer in Migrant Women: An inter-generation comparison among Bangladeshis in the UK
Alejandra Núñez-de-la-Mora and Gillian R. Bentley

Chapter 6. Family Structure and Child Growth in sub-Saharan Africa: Assessing “hidden risk”
Daniel W. Sellen

Appendix: Poor Growth and Risk of Death

PART III: GENE EVOLUTION, ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH

Commentary III: Explaining Health Inequalities
Bill Dressler

Chapter 7. The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease
Keith Godfrey and Mark Hanson

Chapter 8. Beyond the Gradient: An Integrative Anthropological Perspective on Social Stratification, Stress, and Health
Thomas McDade

Chapter 9. The Slavery Hypothesis: An Evaluation of a Genetic-Deterministic Explanation for Hypertension Prevalence Rate Inequalities
Lorena Madrigal, Mwenza Blell, Ernesto Ruiz and Flory Otarola

Conclusion: Adversity, Risk and Health: A View from Public Health
Martin White

Contributors
Glossary
Index