Critical medical anthropology

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The purpose of this book is to provide an introduction and overview to the critical perspective as it has evolved in medical anthropology over the last ten years. Standing as an opposition approach to conventional medical anthropology, critical medical anthropology has emphasized the importance of political and economy forces, including the exercise of power, in shaping health, disease, illness experience, and health care.  Read more... Abstract: The purpose of this book is to provide an introduction and overview to the critical perspective as it has evolved in medical anthropology over the last ten years. Standing as an opposition approach to conventional medical anthropology, critical medical anthropology has emphasized the importance of political and economy forces, including the exercise of power, in shaping health, disease, illness experience, and health care Content: SECTION A: OrientationIntroductionMedical Anthropology and its TransformationThe Critical GazePostmodernism Medical Anthropology: A Critique SECTION B: The Macro-Social LevelHealth-Related Issues in Socialist-Oriented Societies: Ideals, Contradictions, and RealitiesStudying Up: The Political Economy of Nuclear Regulation SECTION C: The Intermediate-Social LevelThe American Dominative Medical System as a Reflection of Social Relations in the Larger SocietyAIDS and the Health Crisis of the U.S. Urban PoorThe Drive for Professionalization in British Osteopathy SECTION D: The Micro-Social LevelMedical Hegemony, Biomedical Magic, and Folk Medicine: Reproductive Illness among Haitian WomenProphets and Advisors in African-American Spiritual Churches: Therapy, Palliative, or Opiate? SECTION E: The Individual LevelConfronting Juan GarcA-a's Drinking Problem: The Demedicalization of AlcoholismCure, Care and Control: Agency and the Structure in the Clinical Encounter SECTION F: DirectionsHow Critical Can Clinical Anthropology Be?Critical Praxis in Medical AnthropologyTopic IndexName Index