Culture and Health: Applying Medical Anthropology » (New Edition)

Michael Winkelman, MPH, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University and former Head of Sociocultural Anthropology. For 16 years he directed the Ethnographic Field School in Ensenada, BC, Mexico.

Praise for Culture and Health

"Winkelman amazes us once more with the quality and scope of his new book, Culture and Health: Applying Medical Anthropology, as he helps us understand the way that medical anthropology's biocultural approach expands the biomedical perspective—he covers Êa vast array of topics, including cultural Êcompetence, cultural systems models, cultural effect on biology, ethnomedicine and alternative medicine, and understanding health activities as cultural practices—a must have for the student, practitioner, or scholar!"

—Marlene Dobkin de Rios, PhD, associate clinical professor of psychiatry and human behavior, University of California, Irvine and professor emerita of anthropology, California State University, Fullerton

"This is the most comprehensive, holistic, and practical text on medical anthropology I have read in my eighteen years of teaching and practice. It skillfully weaves together rich and clear explanations of all vital topics in medical anthropology with user-friendly practical application models and assessment instruments for easy use with self, patients, health care providers, and community members. The book is a medical anthropology gem"

—Mikel Hogan PhD, applied cultural anthropologist and professor and chair, Human Services Department, California State University, Fullerton

"In this thorough and well-constructed introduction to medical anthropology, Winkelman has provided a key resource for health sciences students, beginning researchers, and health professionals who are committed to a comprehensive perspective on the means by which culture—systems, models, beliefs, and practices—affect sickness and healing. The book will be of use to students studying the applications of the social sciences to health and health care, public health scientists wanting a broad view of the means by which social and cultural systems affect the health of communities and populations, and clinicians who wish to develop greater cultural competence in their relationships with patients and their families."

—Craig R. Janes, PhD, professor, associate dean, and director, Global Health Faculty of Health Science, Simon Fraser University

Figures, Tables, and Exhibits.

Special Features.

Preface.

Medical Anthropology’s Perspectives.

Chapter Overviews.

Special Features of the Text.

Dedication.

The Author.

Acknowledgments.

ONE: APPLIED MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND HEALTH CARE.

Culture and Health.

Culture, Ethnomedicines, and Biomedicine.

Cultural Competence in the Health Professions.

Concepts of Health.

Systems Approaches to Health.

Chapter Summary.

TWO: DISEASE, ILLNESS, SICKNESS, AND THE SICK ROLE.

Experience of Maladies.

Biomedical Assumptions About Disease.

Social Models of Maladies and Diagnoses.

Illness and Sickness Accounts.

The Sick Role and Sickness Career.

AIDS as Disease, Sickness, and Illness.

Health Beliefs and Explanatory Models.

Chapter Summary.

THREE: CULTURAL COMPETENCE IN HEALTH CARE.

Cross-Cultural Adaptations in Health Care.

Cultural Competence.

Anthropological Perspectives on Cross-Cultural Adaptation.

Concepts of Culture.

Interpersonal Skills for Intercultural Relations.

Specialty Cross-Cultural Applications of Medical Anthropology.

Using Culture to Care for Patients and Providers.

Chapter Summary.

FOUR: CULTURAL SYSTEMS MODELS.

Cultural Models for Health Assessment.

Cultural Systems Approaches to Health.

Cultural Infrastructure, Structure, and Superstructure.

Infrastructure.

Family Infl uences on Health and Development.

Understanding Worldview and Symbolic Resources.

Community Health Assessment.

Rapid Assessment, Response, and Evaluation (RARE).

Chapter Summary.

FIVE: ETHNOMEDICAL SYSTEMS AND HEALTH CARE SECTORS.

Popular, Folk, and Professional Health Care Sectors.

Popular-Sector Health Resources.

Folk Sectors and Ethnomedicines.

Professional Healers.

Chapter Summary.

SIX: TRANSCULTURAL PSYCHIATRY AND INDIGENOUS PSYCHOLOGY.

Culture and Personality.

Cultural Concepts of Normalcy and Abnormalcy.

Personality and Self in Indigenous Psychology.

Possession in Clinical and Cross-Cultural Perspectives.

Biocultural Approaches to Indigenous Psychology.

Ethnomedical Theories of Illness.

Cross-Cultural Ethnomedical Syndromes.

Chapter Summary.

SEVEN: MEDICAL- ECOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO HEALTH.

Medical Ecology and Disease.

Evolutionary Adaptations and Health.

Genetic, Individual, and Cultural Adaptations to the Environment.

Epidemiology of Disease.

Racial and Ethnic Categories and Health.

Triune Brain Structures and Functions.

Evolution of the Sickness-and-Healing Responses.

Emotions in Biocultural Perspective.

Chapter Summary.

EIGHT: POLITICAL ECONOMY AND CRITICAL MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY.

Political Economy Approaches to Health.

Critical Medical Anthropology.

Social Conditions as Causes of Disease and Health.

Social Networks and Support.

Macrolevel Social Effects on Clinical Health.

Changing Health Through Public Policy and Community Involvement.

Chapter Summary.

NINE: PSYCHOBIOLOGICAL DYNAMICS OF HEALTH.

Cultural Healing.

Religion, Ritual, and Symbolic Healing.

Stress Response.

Placebos and Placebo Effects.

Psychoneuroimmunology.

Metaphoric Processes in Symbolic Healing.

Chapter Summary.

TEN: THE SHAMANIC PARADIGM OF ETHNOMEDICINE.

What Is Shamanism?

The Integrative Mode of Consciousness.

Neurognostic Structures.

Bases for Shamanistic Therapies.

Shamanic Roots in Contemporary Religious Experiences and Healing.

Chapter Summary.

GLOSSARY.

REFERENCES.

NAME INDEX.

SUBJECT INDEX.