This new text provides students with a first exposure to the growing field of medical anthropology. As such, it is guided by three unifying themes. First, medical anthropology is actively engaged in helping to address pressing health problems around the globe through research, intervention, and policy-related initiatives. Second, illness and disease cannot be fully understood or effectively addressed by treating them solely as biological in nature; rather, health problems involve complex biosocial processes and resolving them requires attention to range of factors including systems of belief, structures of social relationship, and environmental conditions. Third, through an examination of health inequalities on the one hand, and environmental degradation and environment-related illness on the other, the authors emphasize the need for a comprehensive medical anthropology that integrates biological, cultural, and social factors, in order to understand the origin of ill health and to contribute to more effective and equitable health care systems.
- ISBN10 1538106477
- ISBN13 9781538106471
- Publish Date 20 March 2019 (first published 16 September 2007)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Publisher Rowman & Littlefield
- Imprint Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
- Edition 3rd ed.
- Format eBook
- Pages 320
- Language English