Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology

Citation

Brown, P. J., & Closser, S. (Eds.). (2016). Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology (3rd ed.). Routledge.

Chapter Summary

This is an edited reader, not a single-author narrative: forty-nine readings in two parts, with editorial introductions, a preface for instructors, a note for students, a reference list and an index. The publisher says seventeen readings are new in the third edition and that many older selections were dropped in favour of fresher ones. The contents list names parts and sections, not individual readings, and the summary follows those divisions. Page numbers from the Google Books contents show the proportions: Part I, with its "Biosocial Approaches in Medical Anthropology" division beginning at page 25 and its "Cultural Approaches in Medical Anthropology" division at page 116, runs to roughly page 330; Part II begins at page 331 and the references at page 447.

To the Instructor; To the Student

Front matter addressed to teachers and students respectively.

Part I: Understanding Medical Anthropology: Biosocial and Cultural Approaches

The conceptual and theoretical part, about three quarters of the main text. Routledge lists these section titles: history of health; the meaning and experience of illness; biomedicine, technology and the body; structural violence; ethnomedicine and healers; culture, illness and mental health. The publisher's description adds that the edition has an updated and expanded section of "Conceptual Tools", including epigenetics and syndemics, and a new section on structural violence, which looks at the impact of poverty and other forms of social marginalization on health.

Part II: Applying Medical Anthropology

The applied part, from page 331 to the references. Its sections are working with the culture of biomedicine; stigma and coping with chronic illness; culture and nutrition; and global health issues and programs. The publisher describes the case studies as covering cross-cultural clinical encounters, the cultural analysis of new biomedical technologies and the implementation of programs in global health settings.

Topics added in this edition

According to the publisher, new readings address climate change, Ebola, post-traumatic stress among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, eating disorders and autism, among others, and include recent articles by Sera Young, Seth Holmes and Erin Finley, winners of the Margaret Mead Award, and by Paul Farmer and Merrill Singer.

Key Concepts

Part I

• Biosocial and cultural approaches: the two lenses named in the part title, one attending to how biology and social conditions interact, the other to meaning and culture.
• Structural violence: harm to health that results from poverty and social marginalization, the subject of a section new to this edition.
• Epigenetics and syndemics: newer ideas the publisher places among the conceptual tools.
• Ethnomedicine: the study of healing traditions and healers, a section title.

Part II

• Applied medical anthropology: using anthropological understanding to work with clinicians, communities and programs.
• Stigma and coping: the section on living with chronic illness.
• Global health programs: the implementation setting for the book's final readings.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Range of voices and approaches. One of the instructors quoted by the publisher, Mark Edberg of George Washington University, praises the coverage of multiple perspectives: ethnomedicine, illness experience, biological interactions with culture and health, political ecology and cross-cultural healing, with a capstone on application.
• Introductions that connect the readings. The publisher stresses extensive background description, and Laurie Price of California State University, East Bay says the introductory essays help students contrast the approaches (biocultural analysis, evolution, cultural interpretation, political ecology, applied work).
• Current selection. With seventeen new readings and sections on structural violence and conceptual tools, the edition leans toward recent work, including pieces by recent Margaret Mead Award winners.
• Useful beyond anthropology. Price adds that health professionals, public health students and anthropology majors all find material to work with.

Limitations

• A reader, not a narrative. Forty-nine readings by many authors give variety but no single argument or continuous voice, and readers will need the editors' introductions to see how the pieces relate.
• Not self-contained. Price describes the book as working well in concert with a health-themed ethnography, which suggests it is best taught alongside a longer case study.
• Application gets less space. Part II, from page 331 to the references at page 447, is about a third the length of Part I, though application is in the title.
• Dated by its year. Published in 2016, it cannot cover later events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, in the way a recent textbook can.

Where It Fits in the Course

Where Andrea Wiley and John Allen's Medical Anthropology: A Biocultural Approach is a single-authored textbook that covers topics systematically in a biology-first order, this volume lets students meet many authors' studies directly and gives more weight to application. The two work well together: the textbook for structure and the reader for primary sources and seminar discussion.

Donald Joralemon and Mary Sundal's Exploring Medical Anthropology is a concise introduction to the main theoretical perspectives and would suit a first course better. Arthur Kleinman's The Illness Narratives and Byron Good's Medicine, Rationality and Experience are interpretive works that bear on the meaning and experience of illness, and Margaret Lock and Vinh-Kim Nguyen's An Anthropology of Biomedicine is a more demanding account of how medical technologies shape bodies and societies.

How to Use This Book

The reader suits undergraduates in a first or second course in medical anthropology and students of public health, nursing, medicine and global health. An introductory anthropology course is helpful; no medical background is needed.

A practical plan:

• Start with the framing: the instructor and student notes, then the editors' introduction to each section before its readings. The introductions carry the argument that links the pieces.
• Core: the Part I sections in order if the course is building concepts from scratch; otherwise choose readings by theme.
• Applied work: the Part II sections suit assignments and projects. Pair a section with a case from a public health or clinical setting.
• Seminar use: assign two or three readings that approach the same topic from different perspectives and ask students to contrast them. Pair the volume with a health ethnography for a fuller case.