Routledge Handbook of Medical Anthropology

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.

"The international scope of its authorship, both of editors and contributors, is something else that sets this book apart from others. It represents intellectual institutional homes in Western Europe, Australia, North America, and Southern Africa. Theories emanating from the University of Amsterdam and other Western European schools are well represented throughout, like Annemarie Mol’s writings on ontology and technology. Manderson’s vast professional archive on gender, health and the environment supports the volume as a whole, as does Hardon’s work on pharmaceuticals and HIV/AIDS and Cartwright’s on structural vulnerabilities, indigeneity, and immigration." - Casey Golomski, Somatosphere "The volume offers very enjoyable and accessible reading. Given its richly ethnographic case studies, the central conclusion of the book is then the necessity of paying attention to the particular contexts of health and illness across the globe and communities, and of understanding the complex entanglements in which they emerge and materialize. In other words, the volume speaks undeniably about the invaluable input that medical anthropologists may bring into important discussions on health and illness and their potential contribution to global health policy making. Thus, the volume goes well beyond what a handbook entails, becoming a fabulous resource for addressing health (in)justices across the globe."-Cristina Doughlas- Anthropology Books Forum

LENORE MANDERSON is Professor of Public Health and Medical Anthropology at the School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, and Professor of Anthropology at the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown University, USA. ELIZABETH CARTWRIGHT is Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Hispanic Health Projects and the Latino Studies Program at Idaho State University, USA. ANITA HARDON is Professor of Health and Social Care at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences and Dean of the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.