Global environmental change and recent worldwide infectious-disease outbreaks make the ecological perspective of medical anthropology more important a field of study than ever. In this premier teaching text, authors Ann McElroy and Patricia K. Townsend integrate biocultural, environmental, and evolutionary approaches to the study of human health, providing a complete and authoritative ecological perspective that is essential for interpreting medical anthropology. Research by biological ant...

Leading health scholars reveal the impact of globalization on human health, as it is mediated through environmental change. They explore the destabilizing impact of globalization on the planet's ecology, and on the health of the human populations that are dependent on the delicate global bionetwork. Their timely case studies describe the cultural adaptations of indigenous populations to their changing environments, evaluating their technological and global political-economic processes. The...

The world is a better place than it used to be. People are wealthier and healthier, and live longer lives. Yet the escapes from destitution by so many have left gaping inequalities between people and between nations. In The Great Escape, Angus Deaton--one of the foremost experts on economic development and on poverty--tells the remarkable story of how, starting 250 years ago, some parts of the world began to experience sustained progress, opening up gaps and setting the stage for ...

Numerous studies, inquiries, and statistics accumulated over the years have demonstrated the poor health status of Aboriginal peoples relative to the Canadian population in general. Aboriginal Health in Canada is about the complex web of physiological, psychological, spiritual, historical, sociological, cultural, economic, and environmental factors that contribute to health and disease patterns among the Aboriginal peoples of Canada.The authors explore the evidence for changes in p...

As the income gap between developed and developing nations grows, so grows the cacophony of voices claiming that the quest to find a simple recipe for economic growth has failed. Getting Better, in sharp contrast, reports the good news about global progress. Economist Charles Kenny argues against development naysayers by pointing to the evidence of widespread improvements in health, education, peace, liberty -- and even happiness.Kenny shows how the spread of cheap technol...

Two past presidents of the American Public Health Association have edited this book on the ways in which social injustice causes and contributes to public health problems. Their previous books War and Public Health and errorism and Public Health both dealt with specific issues of social injustice as they relate to public health. The current book addresses a broader set of issues in a more comprehensive manner. This book defines social injustice as the denial or violation of economic sociocul...

A people-centered approach to global healthWhen People Come First critically assesses the expanding field of global health. It brings together an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars to address the medical, social, political, and economic dimensions of the global health enterprise through vivid case studies and bold conceptual work. The book demonstrates the crucial role of ethnography as an empirical lantern in global health, arguing for a...

Written by one of the leading researchers in First Nations and Inuit Health, this is the only entry-level text to address the current state of knowledge in the field of aboriginal health. The book places aboriginal health in Canada within its historical and philosophical context as it addresses social and clinical approaches to major health issues facing this population. It discusses the distinctive features of aboriginal health and healing as opposed to traditional Western medicine and wh...

This book discusses the core issues of modern public health, its themes, foundations and evolution and the impact of globalisation.

Every subject has its history, including the Social Determinants of Health. It is a subject that investigates differences in human health that occur because of social life, from income and class to family life and neighbourhood. Social determinants can have very large effects on longevity, just as do other determinants, such as the provision of medical care or clean drinking water. A Commission to study the social determinants of health and to propose ways of improving health based upon their...

Anthropology, with its dual emphasis on biology and culture, is--or should be--the discipline most suited to the study of the complex interactions between these aspects of our lives. Unfortunately, since the early decades of this century, biological and cultural anthropology have grown distinct, and a holistic vision of anthropology has suffered.This book brings culture and biology back together in new and refreshing ways. Directly addressing earlier criticisms of biological anthro...

A Companion to Medical Anthropology examines the current issues, controversies, and state of the field in medical anthropology today.Provides an expert view of the major topics and themes to concern the discipline since its founding in the 1960sWritten by leading international scholars in medical anthropologyCovers environmental health, global health, biotechnology, syndemics, nutrition, substance abuse, infectious disease, and sexuality and repro...