This ethnography takes the reader into the Australian suburbs to learn about food, eating and bodies during the highly political context of one of Australia's largest childhood obesity interventions. While there is ample evidence about the number of people who are overweight or obese and an abundance of information about what and how to eat, obesity remains 'a problem' in high-income countries such as Australia. Rather than rely on common assumptions that people are making all the wrong choices, this volume reveals the challenges of 'eating healthy' when money is scarce and how, different versions of being fat and doing fat happen in everyday worlds of precarity. Without acknowledgement of the multiple realities of fatness and obesity, interventions will continue to have limited reach.

Health and Other Unassailable Values sets out to examine health as a core cultural value. Taking 'health', 'evidence' and 'ethics' as her primary themes, Bell explores the edifice that underpins contemporary conceptions of health and the transformations in how we understand it, assess it and enact it. Although health, evidence and ethics have always been important values, she demonstrates that the grounds upon which they are grasped today are radically different from how they were formulated in the past. Divided into three parts, Part I focuses on the rise of epidemiology, Part II examines the emergence of evidence-based medicine, and Part III explores the broader ethical turn in health and medicine. Through an examination of core concepts including health behaviour, the randomised controlled trial, informed consent and human rights, Bell illustrates the ways in which certain entrenched ideas and assumptions about how human beings think and act recur across a variety of settings. An array of topical case studies, including cigarette packaging legislation, the incorporation of male circumcision as an HIV prevention tool, cancer screening technologies and e-cigarettes, ground the arguments presented. Written in a clear and engaging style, this volume will be of interest to a wide range of scholars and students, especially those in medical anthropology, medical sociology and public health. Clear chapter delineations make the work easy to engage with at the individual chapter level as well as a whole.

While most of us live our lives according to the working week, we did not evolve to be bound by industrial schedules, nor did the food we eat. Despite this, we eat the products of industrialization and often suffer as a consequence. This book considers aspects of changing human nutrition from evolutionary and social perspectives. It considers what a 'natural' human diet might be, how it has been shaped across evolutionary time and how we have adapted to changing food availability. The transition from hunter-gatherer and the rise of agriculture through to the industrialisation and globalisation of diet are explored. Far from being adapted to a 'Stone Age' diet, humans can consume a vast range of foodstuffs. However, being able to eat anything does not mean that we should eat everything, and therefore engagement with the evolutionary underpinnings of diet and factors influencing it are key to better public health practice.

The promotion of CCTV surveillance and identity cards, along with ever heightened security at airports, immigration control and institutional access, has seen a dramatic increase in the use of automated and manual recognition. In addition, several recent disasters have highlighted the problems and challenges associated with current disaster victim identification. Discussing the latest advances and key research into identification from the face and skull, this book draws together a wide range of elements relating to craniofacial analysis and identification. It examines all aspects of facial identification, including the determination of facial appearance from the skull, comparison of the skull with the face and the verification of living facial images. With sections covering the identification of the dead and of the living, it provides a valuable review of the current state of play along with the latest research advances in this constantly evolving field.

In an era of globalization characterized by widespread migration and cultural contacts, psychologists, counselors, and other mental health professionals face a unique challenge: how does one practice successfully when working with clients from so many different backgrounds? Gielen, Draguns, and Fish argue that an understanding of the general principles of multicultural counseling is of great importance to all practitioners. The lack of this knowledge can have several negative consequences during therapy, including differences in expectations between counselor and client, misdiagnosis of the client s concerns, missed non-verbal cues, and the client feeling that she has been misunderstood. This volume focuses on the general nature of cultural influences in counseling rather than on counseling specific ethnic groups. Counseling practices from all over the world, not just those of Western society, are explored. Bringing together the work of a diverse group of international experts, the editors have compiled a volume that is not only concise and teachable, but also an essential guidebook for all mental-health professionals."

This book 1. explores current methods and techniques employed by paleopathologists as means to highlight the range of data that can be generated. 2. introduces a range of diseases and conditions that have been noted in the fossil, archaeological, and historical record, offering readers a foundational understanding of pathological conditions, along with their potential etiologies. 3. will be indispensable for archaeologists, bioarchaeologists and historians, and those in medical fields, as it reflects current scholarship within paleopathology and the field's impact on our understanding of health and disease in the past, the present, and implications for our future.

Drawing on the case of HIV/AIDS in Thailand, this book examines how anthropological and other interpretative social science research has been utilized in modeling the AIDS epidemic, and in the design and implementation of interventions. It argues that much social science research has been complicit with the forces that generated the epidemic and with the social control agendas of the state, and that as such it has increased the weight of structural violence bearing upon the afflicted. The book also questions claims of Thai AIDS control success, arguing that these can only be made at the cost of excluding categories such as intravenous drug users, the incarcerated, and homosexuals, who continue to experience extraordinarily high levels of levels of HIV infection. Considered deviant and undeserving, these persons have deliberately been excluded from harm reduction programs. Overall, this work argues for the untapped potential of anthropological research in the health field, a confident anthropology rooted in ethnography and a critical reflexivity. Crucially, it argues that in context of interdisciplinary collaborations, anthropological research must refuse relegation to the status of an adjunct discipline, and must be free epistemologically and methodologically from the universalizing assumptions and practices of biomedicine.

Our bones can reveal fascinating information about how we have lived, from the food we have eaten to our levels of activity and the infections and injuries we have suffered. Elizabeth Weiss introduces readers to how lifestyle-in complex interaction with biology, genes, and environment-affects health in this distinctive tour of human osteology, past and present. Centering on health issues that have arisen in the last 50 to 60 years rather than thousands of years ago, Paleopathology in Perspective is organized around particular bone traits such as growth patterns, back pains, infections, and oral health. Each chapter explains one category of traits and reviews data drawn from both ancient and more contemporary populations to explore how global trait trends have changed over time. Weiss also considers the likely causes of these changes-for example, the growth of obesity, increased longevity, and greater intensity of childhood sports. Taking a long view of bones, as Weiss clearly demonstrates, provides clues not just about how ancient humans once lived, but also how biology and behavior, lifestyle and health, remain intrinsically linked.

This book, originally published in 2004, is concerned with the links between human evolution and infectious disease. It has long been recognised that an important factor in human evolution has been the struggle against infectious disease and, more recently, it was revealed that complex genetic polymorphisms are the direct result of that struggle. As molecular biological techniques become more sophisticated, a number of breakthroughs in the area of host-pathogen evolution led to an increased interest in this field. From the historical beginnings of J. B. S. Haldane's original hypothesis to more recent research, this book strives to evaluate infectious diseases from an evolutionary perspective. It provides a survey of information regarding host-pathogen evolution related to major infectious diseases and parasitic infections, including malaria, influenza and leishmaniasis. Written by leading authorities in the field, and edited by a former pupil of Haldane, Infectious Disease and Host-Pathogen Evolution will be valuable for those working in related areas of microbiology, parasitology, immunology and infectious disease medicine, as well as genetics, evolutionary biology and epidemiology.

Dr Taylor's book analyses the disease concept as it developed in medical history and seeks to clarify it with the help of concepts largely derived from logical class theories. A solution is proposed to the problem of how to distinguish between the class of 'patients' and the class of 'healthy persons' which corresponds to the actual diagnostic practices of doctors. The earliest theories of disease postulated concrete entities which exist independently of the body. The notion of disease entity has lost its original ontological connotations and instead its important feature has become the possession of a unitary and self-contained character. Dr Taylor describes the modern theories as essentially 'reactive' in character, that is the symptoms of a disease are the bodily reactions to the 'noxae'. After seeing the subject in its historical content, Dr Taylor goes on to discuss in detail the notion of the classification of diseases, making extensive use of modern views on the logic of classes.

Measures of biological variation have long been associated with many indices of social inequality. Data on health, nutrition, fertility, mortality, physical fitness, intellectual performance and a range of heritable biological markers show the ubiquity of such patterns across time, space and population. This volume reviews the current evidence for the strength of such linkages and the biological and social mechanisms that underlie them. A major theme is the relationship between the proximate determinants of these linkages and their longer-term significance for biologically selective social mobility. This book therefore addresses the question of how social stratification mediates processes of natural selection in human groups. Data like this pose difficult and sensitive issues for health policy and developments in this area and in eugenics are reviewed for industrialised and developing countries.

Bringing together a variety of today's most accomplished dental researchers Technique and Application in Dental Anthropology covers a range of topics germane to the study of human and other primate teeth. The chapters encompass work on individuals to samples, ranging from prehistoric to modern times. The focus throughout the book is the methodology required for the study of modern dental anthropology, comprising the most up-to-date scientific methods in use today - ranging from simple observation to advanced computer-based analyses - which can be utilized by the reader in their own dental research. Originating from the 20th anniversary meeting of the Dental Anthropology Association, this is a valuable reference source for graduate students, academic researchers and professionals in the social and life sciences, as well as clinicians.

Over the course of the past thirty years, there has been an explosion of work on sexuality, both conceptually and methodologically. From a relatively limited, specialist field, the study of sexuality has expanded across a wide range of social sciences. Yet as the field has grown, it has become apparent that a number of leading edge critical issues remain.

This theory-building book explores some of the areas in which there is major and continuing debate, for example, about the relationship between sexuality and gender; about the nature and status of heterosexuality; about hetero- and homo-normativity; about the influence and intersection of class, race, age and other factors in sexual trajectories, identities and lifestyles; and about how best to understand the new forms of sexuality that are emerging in both rich world and developing world contexts.

With contributions from leading and new scholars and activists from across the globe, this book highlights tensions or flash-points in contemporary debate, and offers some innovative ways forward in terms of thinking about sexuality both theoretically and with respect to policy and programme development. An extended essay by Henrietta Moore introduces the volume, and an afterword by Jeffrey Weeks offers pointers for the future.

The contributors bring together a range of experiences and a variety of disciplinary perspectives in engaging with three key themes of sexual subjectivity and global transformations, sexualities in practice, and advancing new thinking on sexuality in policy and programmatic contexts. It is of interest to students, researchers and activists in sexuality, sexual health and gender studies, especially those working from public health, sociological and anthropological perspectives.

Andrea Wiley investigates the ecological, historical, and socio-cultural factors that contribute to the peculiar pattern of infant mortality in Ladakh, a high-altitude region in the western Himalayas of India. Ladakhi newborns are extremely small at birth, smaller than those in other high-altitude populations, smaller still than those in sea level regions. Factors such as hypoxia, dietary patterns, the burden of women's work, gender, infectious diseases, seasonality, and use of local health resources all affect a newborn's birth weight and raise the likelihood of infant mortality. An Ecology of High-Altitude Infancy is unique in that it makes use of the methods of human biology but strongly emphasizes the ethnographic context that gives human biological measures their meaning. It is an example of a new genre of anthropological work: 'ethnographic human biology'.

Based on international research, this collection incorporates a critical analysis of World Health Organization cross-cultural findings. Contributors share an interest in subjective and interpretive aspects of illness, while maintaining the concept of schizophrenia that addresses its biological aspects. The volume is of interest to scholars in the social and human sciences, and of practical relevance not only to psychiatrists, but all mental health professionals encountering the clinical problems bridging culture and psychosis.

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 1960s * Written by leading international scholars in medical anthropology * Covers environmental health, global health, biotechnology, syndemics, nutrition, substance abuse, infectious disease, and sexuality and reproductive health, and other topics

In Sharing the Burden of Sickness, Jonathan Roberts examines the history of the healing cultures in Accra, Ghana. When people are sick in Accra, they can pursue a variety of therapeutic options. West African traditional healers, spiritual healers from the Islamic and Christian traditions, Western clinical medicine, and an open marketplace of over-the-counter medicine provide ample means to promote healing and preventing sickness. Each of these healing cultures had a historical point of arrival in the city of Accra, and Roberts tells the story of how they intertwined and how patients and healers worked together in their struggle against disease. By focusing on the medical history of one place, Roberts details how urban development, colonization, decolonization, and independence brought new populations to the city, where they shared their ideas about sickness and health. Sharing the Burden of Sickness explores medical history during important periods in Accra's history. Roberts not only introduces readers to a wide range of ideas about health but also charts a course for a thoroughly pluralistic culture of healing in the future, especially with the spread of new epidemics of HIV/AIDS and ebola.

In an era of globalization characterized by widespread migration and cultural contacts, psychologists, counselors, and other mental health professionals face a unique challenge: how does one practice successfully when working with clients from so many different backgrounds? Gielen, Draguns, and Fish argue that an understanding of the general principles of multicultural counseling is of great importance to all practitioners. The lack of this knowledge can have several negative consequences during therapy, including differences in expectations between counselor and client, misdiagnosis of the client s concerns, missed non-verbal cues, and the client feeling that she has been misunderstood. This volume focuses on the general nature of cultural influences in counseling rather than on counseling specific ethnic groups. Counseling practices from all over the world, not just those of Western society, are explored. Bringing together the work of a diverse group of international experts, the editors have compiled a volume that is not only concise and teachable, but also an essential guidebook for all mental-health professionals."

In this fully revised and updated edition, the editors have integrated a completely new set of contributions from the leading researchers in the field to describe the latest research in evolutionary medicine, providing a fresh summary of this rapidly expanding field 10 years after its predecessor was first compiled. It continues to adopt a broad approach to the subject, drawing on medically relevant research from evolutionary genetics, human behavioural ecology, evolutionary microbiology (especially experimental evolution of virulence and resistance), the evolution of aging and degenerative disease, and other aspects of biology or medicine where evolutionary approaches make important contributions. Evolution in Health and Disease describes how evolutionary thinking gives valuable insights and fresh perspectives into human health and disease, establishing evolutionary biology as an essential complementary science for medicine. Integrating evolutionary thought into medical research and practice helps to explain the origins of many medical conditions, including diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, asthma, allergies, other autoimmune diseases, and aging. It also provides life-saving insights into the evolutionary responses of pathogens to antibiotics, vaccinations, and other human interventions. Why are we vulnerable to disease? Why are our bodies not better designed? Are unpleasant surprises in store as we use more antibiotics and vaccines? Why do we respond to inappropriately to so many modern conditions? How do cancers evolve? Why must we grow old? The book discusses answers to these and many other questions while suggesting new approaches to treatment and research. This research-level text is suitable for graduate-level students and researchers in the fields of evolutionary (Darwinian) medicine, evolutionary biology, anthropology, developmental biology, and genetics. It will also be of relevance and use to medical researchers and doctors.

During the twentieth century, genes were considered the controlling force of life processes, and the transfer of DNA the definitive explanation for biological heredity. Such views shaped the politics of human heredity: in the eugenic era, controlling heredity meant intervening in the distribution of "good" and "bad" genes. However, since the turn of the twenty-first century, this centrality of genes has been challenged by a number of "postgenomic" disciplines. The rise of epigenetics in particular signals a shift from notions of biological fixedness to ideas of plasticity and "impressionability" of biological material. This book investigates a long history of the beliefs about the plasticity of human biology, starting with ancient medicine, and analyses the biopolitical techniques required to govern such permeability. It looks at the emergence of the modern body of biomedicine as a necessary displacement or possibly reconfiguration of earlier plastic views. Finally, it analyses the returning of plasticity to contemporary postgenomic views and argues that postgenomic plasticity is neither a modernistic plasticity of instrumental management of the body nor a postmodernist celebration of potentialities. It is instead a plasticity that disrupts clear boundaries between openness and determination, individual and community, with important implications for notions of risk, responsibility and intervention.

There is growing interest in "therapeutic narratives" and the relation between narrative and healing. Cheryl Mattingly's ethnography of the practice of occupational therapy in a North American hospital investigates the complex interconnections between narrative and experience in clinical work. Viewing the world of disability as a socially constructed experience, it presents fascinatingly detailed case studies of clinical interactions between occupational therapists and patients, many of them severely injured and disabled, and illustrates the diverse ways in which an ordinary clinical interchange is transformed into a dramatic experience governed by a narrative plot. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including anthropological studies of narrative and ritual, literary theory, phenomenology and hermeneutics, this book develops a narrative theory of social action and experience. While most contemporary theories of narrative presume that narratives impose an artificial coherence upon lived experience, Mattingly argues for a revision of the classic mimetic position. If narrative offers a correspondence to lived experience, she contends, the dominant formal feature which connects the two is not narrative coherence but narrative drama. Moving and sophisticated, this book is an innovative contribution to the study of modern institutions and to anthropological theory.

"A Companion to Forensic Anthropology" presents the most comprehensive assessment of the philosophy, goals, and practice of forensic anthropology currently available, with chapters by renowned international scholars and experts.Presents the most comprehensive assessment of the philosophy, goals, and practice of forensic anthropology available, with chapters by a wide range of renowned international scholars and experts Highlights the latest advances in forensic anthropology research, as well as the most effective practices and techniques used by professional forensic anthropologists in the fieldIllustrates the development of skeletal biological profiles and offers important new evidence on statistical validation of these analytical methods.Evaluates the goals and methods of forensic archaeology, including the preservation of context at surface-scattered remains, buried bodies and fatal fire scenes, and recovery and identification issues related to large-scale mass disaster scenes and mass grave excavation.

It is estimated that up to thirteen percent of hospital admissions result from the adverse effects of diagnosis or treatment, and that anywhere from 44,000 to 98,000 hospital deaths annually are the result of errors. The obligation to "do no harm" has been central to medical conduct since ancient times, yet iatrogenic illness and medical error have now come to be recognized as significant risk factors in health care delivery. This book integrates history, philosophy, medical ethics and empirical data to examine the concept and phenomenon of medical harm. Issues covered include medical error, appropriateness of care, acceptable risk and practitioner accountability, and recommendations for limiting iatrogenic harm.

The Routledge Handbook of Medical Anthropology provides a contemporary overview of the key themes in medical anthropology. In this exciting departure from conventional handbooks, compendia and encyclopedias, the three editors have written the core chapters of the volume, and in so doing, invite the reader to reflect on the ethnographic richness and theoretical contributions of research on the clinic and the field, bioscience and medical research, infectious and non-communicable diseases, biomedicine, complementary and alternative modalities, structural violence and vulnerability, gender and ageing, reproduction and sexuality. As a way of illustrating the themes, a rich variety of case studies are included, presented by over 60 authors from around the world, reflecting the diverse cultural contexts in which people experience health, illness, and healing. Each chapter and its case studies are introduced by a photograph, reflecting medical and visual anthropological responses to inequality and vulnerability. An indispensible reference in this fastest growing area of anthropological study, The Routledge Handbook of Medical Anthropology is a unique and innovative contribution to the field.

Why do people single out gold, sapphires, diamonds, and other minerals as particularly "precious"? What makes precious minerals "precious"? Drawing from ethnographic and cross-cultural research, this collection of anthropological essays and case studies answers these questions by exploring humans' multifaceted relationships with the minerals they deem "precious." The Anthropology of Precious Minerals addresses the entanglement of humans and minerals, with a particular focus on the practices of scrappers, miners, and hunters as they work to extract value. The editors draw from history, archaeology, and ethnography, and remind us that "preciousness" must always be understood in relation to complex cultural, political-economic, and semiotic systems of value.