As world populations continue to age, the incidence of very common, ultimately fatal neurodegenerative diseases (some of medicine's most puzzling illnesses) will increase exponentially. Neurogenetic Diagnoses, the Power of Hope, and the Limits of Today's Medicine explores the diverse impacts and intense meanings of genetic diagnoses for patients suffering from such diseases, and for their family caregivers and clinicians. Through richly-textured, often heart-wrenching longitudinal case studies, Neurogenetic Diagnoses... reveals how extremely difficult it can be for patients to obtain a definitive diagnosis for the cause of their symptoms, even with genetic testing; how, with or without definitive diagnoses, patients and family caregivers strive to come to terms with their situations; and how they are aided (or not) in these endeavors by their doctors. The analysis is framed by increasingly sharp social debate over the consequences of decoding the human genome -- and the impact of genetic technology on our lives.

As world populations continue to age, the incidence of very common, ultimately fatal neurodegenerative diseases (some of medicine's most puzzling illnesses) will increase exponentially. Neurogenetic Diagnoses, the Power of Hope, and the Limits of Today's Medicine explores the diverse impacts and intense meanings of genetic diagnoses for patients suffering from such diseases, and for their family caregivers and clinicians. Through richly-textured, often heart-wrenching longitudinal case studies, Neurogenetic Diagnoses... reveals how extremely difficult it can be for patients to obtain a definitive diagnosis for the cause of their symptoms, even with genetic testing; how, with or without definitive diagnoses, patients and family caregivers strive to come to terms with their situations; and how they are aided (or not) in these endeavors by their doctors. The analysis is framed by increasingly sharp social debate over the consequences of decoding the human genome -- and the impact of genetic technology on our lives.

"Reproduction, Globalization, and the State" conceptualizes and puts into practice a global anthropology of reproduction and reproductive health. Leading anthropologists offer new perspectives on how transnational migration and global flows of communications, commodities, and biotechnologies affect the reproductive lives of women and men in diverse societies throughout the world. Based on research in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Western Europe, their fascinating ethnographies provide insight into reproduction and reproductive health broadly conceived to encompass population control, HIV/AIDS, assisted reproductive technologies, paternity tests, sex work, and humanitarian assistance. The contributors address the methodological challenges of research on globalization, including ways of combining fine-grained ethnography with analyses of large-scale political, economic, and ideological forces. Their essays reveal complex interactions among global and state population policies and politics; public health, human rights, and feminist movements; diverse medical systems; various religious practices, doctrines, and institutions; and intimate relationships and individual aspirations.

"Contributors." Aditya Bharadwaj, Caroline H. Bledsoe, Carole H. Browner, Junjie Chen, Aimee R. Eden, Susan L. Erikson, Didier Fassin, Claudia Lee Williams Fonseca, Ellen Gruenbaum, Matthew Gutmann, Marcia C. Inhorn, Mark B. Padilla, Rayna Rapp, Lisa Ann Richey, Carolyn Sargent, Papa Sow, Cecilia Van Hollen, Linda Whiteford