Description
Book SynopsisCulture, Health and Illness is the leading international textbook on the role of cultural and social factors in health, illness, and medical care. Since first published in 1984, it has been used in over 40 countries within universities, medical schools and nursing colleges. This new edition meets the ever-growing need for a clear starting point in understanding the clinical significance of cultural and social factors. The book addresses the complex interactions between health, illness and culture by setting out anthropological theory in a highly readable, jargon-free style and integrating this with the practice of health care using real-life examples and case histories.
Fully revised throughout, the fifth edition has expanded its coverage of topics that are challenging both the patient and the carer''s understanding of health and illness: poverty and inequality of healthcare, genetics, biotechnology, the internet and health, chronic diseases, drug-resistant
Trade ReviewPraise for earlier edition: 'When with humility we are ready to use this excellent book, we will better apply our science toward improving the quality of life throughout the globe'
Journal of the American Medical Association
Praise for earlier edition: 'This book can be thoroughly recommended for its fresh perspective on medical transactions'
The Lancet
Praise for earlier edition: 'It is clearly written and structured, a valuable source for current references, and easily accessible to the interested general reader or student of the field'
Social Sciences in Health
Table of ContentsPreface to the 5th Edition
1. Introduction: the scope of medical anthropology
2. The body: cultural definitions of anatomy and physiology
3. Diet and Nutrition
4. Caring and curing: the sectors of health care
5. Doctor-patient interactions
6. Gender and reproduction
7. Pain and culture
8. Culture and pharmacology: drugs, alcohol and tobacco
9. Ritual and the management of misfortune
10. Cross-cultural psychiatry
11. Cultural aspects of stress and suffering
12. Migration, globalization and health
13. Telemedicine and the Internet
14. New bodies, new selves: genetics and biotechnology
15. Cultural factors in epidemiology
16. The AIDS pandemic
17. Tropical diseases: malaria and leprosy
18. Medical anthropology and global health
19. New research methods in medical anthropology
Appendix: Journals and websites
Author index
Subject index
