Medical anthropology in ecological perspective / Ann McElroy, Patricia K. Townsend, University of Buffalo ; with contributions by Pamela L. Erickson, University of Connecticut ... [and five others].

Boulder, CO : Westview Press, amember of the Perseus Book Group, [2009]

xx, 500 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Fifth edition.

The ecology of health and disease. Preview -- Studying Nepali children: an example of medical anthropology -- Environment, culture, and health -- Profile: Arctic adaptations -- A working model of ecology and health -- Resources -- Interdisciplinary research in health problems. Preview -- The nature of collaboration -- Bio-environmental data -- Profile: Cannibal mourners -- Clinical data -- Epidemiological data -- Social and cultural data -- Becoming a medical anthropologist -- Profile: Learning field methods in Costa Rica / Nancy Romero-Daza and David A. Himmelgreen -- Fieldwork ethics -- Medical anthropology at work -- Conclusions -- Resources -- Genes, culture, and adaptation. Preview -- Human variability and adaptation -- Adaptation through biological evolution -- Skin color and adaptation -- Evolution and human immune system -- Profile: Malaria and agriculture -- Evolution and medicine -- Physiological and developmental adaptation -- Cultural adaptation -- Direct medical control strategies -- Variability and hcnage in cultural systems -- Studying adaptation -- Profile: Local differences in iodine deficiency goiter in the western Himalaya / Richard V. Lee -- Studying adaptation to illness and disability -- Conclusions -- Resources -- Changing patterns of disease and health. Preview -- Culture as environment -- The study of population -- Profile: infant survival in a Papua New Guinea society -- Life and death in hunter-gatherer camps and farming villages -- Paleopathology: the study of disease in prehistory -- Life and death in the preindustrial city -- Profile: The black death -- Life and death in industrial society -- Conclusions -- Resources -- The ecology and economics of nutrition. Preview -- Human foodways and nutritional needs -- Subsistence by hunting and gathering -- Nutrition in prehistory -- Profile: Dry bones: health in southwestern prehistory -- Subsistence in the humid tropics -- Agriculture -- Profile: Famine in Ethiopia -- Industrial agriculture -- The global epidemic of malnutrition -- Best or bottle -- The anthropology of food and cooking -- All that goes in the mouth is not food -- Conclusions -- Resources -- Culture, ecology, and reproduction. Preview -- Three birth stories -- Well-being in pregnancy: biological and social factors -- Profile: pregnancy beliefs and food taboos in Malaysia -- Care providers in pregnancy and birth -- Species-specific reproductive patterns -- Fecundity and fertility -- Profile: Using anthropological methods to understand condom use for STI prevention in the inner city / Pamela I. Erickson -- Reproduction and social support systems -- Conclusions -- Resources -- Stress, illness, and healing. Preview -- The concept of stress -- Understanding the physiology of stress -- Profile: Stress, social support, and health: the Dressler research -- Can stress induce healing? -- Stress and psychiatric disorders -- Alcohol abuse -- Post-traumatic stress disorder -- Populations under stress -- Profile: Stress, alcohol, and demographic change in northern Siberia / John P. Ziker -- Environmental disasters as stressors -- Resilience: a buffer against stress -- Conclusions -- Resources -- Health resources in changing cultures. Preview -- The story of Ishi -- Change and adaptation -- Models for the study of contact processes -- Repercussions of culture contact on health in the Arctic -- Profile: Culture change and Inuit health: two families -- Health care as an adaptive system -- Decisions about care -- Refugee health care -- Anthropology and HIV/AIDS -- Conclusions -- Resources -- Costs and benefits of development. Preview -- Spirit possession in a Malaysian factory -- Globalization and health -- Water systems, disease, and applied medical anthropology -- Profile: The medical ecology of cholera in Ecuador / Linda Whiteford -- Strategies for improving health -- Health disparities in developed economies -- Paying the costs of industrial development -- Profile: Hazardous waste and the Mohawks at Akwesasne -- The anthropology of trouble -- Conclusions -- Resources -- Medical anthropologists at work: meeting the challenges of the twenty-first century. Preview -- Violence and terror: the work of forensic anthropologists -- The AIDS pandemic: medical anthropologists in international health -- Contemporary medicine and its discontents -- Conclusions -- Resources -- Appendix: Projects in medical anthropology.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 433-482) and index.