Culture, Health and Illness is the leading international textbook on the role of cultural and social factors in health, illness, and medical care. Since first published in 1984, it has been used in more than forty countries, in universities, medical schools, and nursing colleges. This new edition meets the ever-growing need for a clear starting point in understanding the clinical significance of cultural and social factors. Addressing the complex interactions between health, illness, and culture, this unique text sets out anthropological theory in a highly readable, jargon-free style and integrates it with the practice of health care using real-life examples and case histories.

Features:

* Addresses current concerns about the multicultural context of health care

* Well supported by empirical examples and case studies from more than ninety countries

* New coverage of poverty and inequality of health care, genetics, telemedicine, migration medicine, HIV/AIDS, obesity and malnutrition, and developments in medical technology

* Features a free companion website that includes extensive additional material and printable clinical questionnaires: www.culturehealthandillness.com

* In color for the first time

In today's world of increasing cultural, religious, and ethnic diversity of populations, Culture, Health and Illness, Fifth Edition, is essential reading for students of medicine, nursing, psychiatry, public health, health education, international health, and medical anthropology, all across the globe.

This book examines the role of cultural and social factors in our health, illness and medical care.

Addresses the complex interactions between health, illness and culture by setting out anthropological theory, and integrating this with the practice of healthcare using real-life examples and case histories.

1. Introduction: The Scope of Medical Anthropology

2. The Body: Cultural Definitions of Anatomy and Physiology

3. Diet and Nutrition

4. Caring and Curing: The Sectors of Health Care

5. Doctor-patient Interactions

6. Gender and Reproduction

7. Pain and Culture

8. Culture and Pharmacology: Drugs, Alcohol and Tobacco

9. Ritual and the Management of Misfortune

10. Cross-cultural Psychiatry

11. Cultural Aspects of Stress and Suffering

12. Migration, Globalization and Health

13. Telemedicine and the Internet

14. New Bodies, New Selves: Genetics and Biotechnology

15. Cultural Factors in Epidemiology

16. The AIDS Pandemic

17. Tropical Diseases: Malaria and Leprosy

18. Medical Anthropology and Global Health

19. New Research Methods in Medical Anthropology

Appendix: Journals and Websites

Author Index

Subject Index