Synopsis of Contents viii List of Figures xix List of Tables xx Notes on Contributors xxi Acknowledgments Personal xxxii Acknowledgments Sources xxxiii Introduction 1 Part I Theories, Applications, and Methods 7 1 Medical Anthropology in Disciplinary Context: Definitional Struggles and Key Debates (or Answering the Cri Du Coeur) 9 Elisa J. Sobo 2 Critical Biocultural Approaches in Medical Anthropology 29 Tom Leatherman and Alan H. Goodman 3 Applied Medical Anthropology: Praxis, Pragmatics, Politics, and Promises 49 Robert T. Trotter, II 4 Research Design and Methods in Medical Anthropology 69 Clarence C. Gravlee 5 Medical Anthropology and Public Policy 93 Merrill Eisenberg Part II Contexts and Conditions 117 6 Culture and the Stress Process 119 William W. Dressler 7 Global Health 135 Craig R. Janes and Kitty K. Corbett 8 Syndemics in Global Health 159 Merrill Singer, D. Ann Herring, Judith Littleton, and Melanie Rock 9 The Ecology of Disease and Health 181 Patricia K. Townsend 10 The Medical Anthropology of Water 197 Linda M. Whiteford and Cecilia Vindrola Padros 11 Political Violence, War and Medical Anthropology 219 Barbara Rylko-Bauer and Merrill Singer Part III Health and Behavior 251 12 Humans in a World of Microbes: The Anthropology of Infectious Disease 253 Peter J. Brown, George J. Armelagos, and Kenneth C. Maes 13 Sexuality, Medical Anthropology, and Public Health 271 Pamela I. Erickson 14 Situating Birth in the Anthropology of Reproduction 289 Carolyn Sargent and Lauren Gulbas 15 Nutrition and Health 305 David A. Himmelgreen, Nancy Romero Daza and Charlotte A. Noble 16 Anthropologies of Cancer and Risk, Uncertainty and Disruption 323 Lenore Manderson 17 Generation RX: Anthropological Research on Pharmaceutical Enhancement, Lifestyle Regulation, Self-Medication and Recreational Drug Use 339 Gilbert Quintero and Mark Nichter 18 Anthropology and the Study of Illicit Drug Use 357 J. Bryan Page Part IV Healthwork: Care, Treatment, and Communication 379 19 Ethnomedicine 381 Marsha B. Quinlan 20 Medical Pluralism: An Evolving and Contested Concept in Medical Anthropology 405 Hans A. Baer 21 Biotechnologies of Care 425 Julie Park and Ruth Fitzgerald 22 Social Interaction and Technology: Cultural Competency and the Universality of Good Manners 443 Kathryn Coe, Gail Barker, and Craig Palmer 23 Biocommunicability 459 Charles L. Briggs 24 Anthropology at the End of Life 477 Ron Barrett Part V The Road Ahead 491 25 Operationalizing a Right to Health: Theorizing a National Health System as a "Commons" 493 Sandy Smith-Nonini and Beverly Bell 26 As the Future Explodes into the Present: Emergent Issues and the Tomorrow of Medical Anthropology 515 Merrill Singer and Pamela I. Erickson Index 533

In a global environment of enormous health challenges, medical anthropologists offer important understandings of health systems and healing practices around the world. These leading international scholars assess our persisting problems of malnutrition, chronic and infectious diseases, and the influence of escalating levels of inequality, poverty, war, and genocide. A Companion to Medical Anthropology examines the key issues and controversies in medical anthropology today.  Singer and Erickson present a thorough assessment of a specific area of medical anthropology, including expert overviews of major topics such as environmental health, global health, biotechnology, syndemics, nutrition, substance abuse, infectious disease, and sexuality and reproductive health. The authors also provide a guide to future trends and the emerging issues that will shape the future of medical anthropology and global health for years to come.

"A Companion to Medical Anthropology in the 21st Century, edited by Merrill Singer and Pamela I. Erickson, is quite simply the best overview that is currently available of the field of medical anthropology in the early 21st century.  The chapters brought together in this volume provide not only a definitive overview of an intellectual field, but also a clear sense of medical anthropology's engagement with the world of politics, policy and practice.  This is critical social research at its very best." - Richard G. Parker, Columbia University   "With its broad scope and accomplished contributors, this volume will be a primary reference for all medical anthropologists and students of the field.  Its comprehensive coverage extends both to dominant and emerging themes in the discipline."  - James Trostle, Trinity College