Medical Anthropology in Ecological Perspective Hardcover -

From the rear cover

"Medical Anthropology in Ecological Perspective" presents human health and nutrition from a perspective that recognizes the overlapping and synergistic functions of biology, behavior, and environment. A classic in medical anthropology, this remains one of the fundamental texts in the field.
Dale Hutchinson, University of North Carolina McElroy and Townsend s text captures the breadth and depth of medical anthropology, expertly weaving content with case studies. They carefully highlight how power and access to resources are fundamental concerns in anthropological and ecological approaches to health and illness. An excellent resource for students interested in biocultural approaches to understanding our current health and healthcare challenges.
K. Jill Fleuriet, University of Texas San Antonio Global environmental change and recent worldwide infectious-disease outbreaks confirm the continued importance of the ecological perspective of medical anthropology as a field of study. In "Medical Anthropology in Ecological Perspective," 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 anthropologists, archaeologists, and paleopathologists illuminates the history and prehistory of disease, along with coverage of contemporary health issues, both local and global. This sixth edition is thoroughly revised and updated, with expanded discussion on the interaction of environment and infectious disease; new material on climate change, globalization, and the effects of war on physical and mental health; and an entirely new chapter on ethics in medical anthropology.
Ann McElroy is associate professor emerita of anthropology at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. She has done research in Nunavut, Canada, for the past forty-seven years and is the author of Nunavut Generations: Change and Continuity in Baffin Island Inuit Communities (Waveland Press, 2008). Patricia K. Townsend is research associate professor at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. Her most recent book is Environmental Anthropology: From Pigs to Policies (Waveland Press, Second Edition, 2009). She has done fieldwork in Papua New Guinea, Peru, and at Superfund sites in the United States.
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