Medical Anthropology at the Intersections : Histories, Activisms, and Futures

In this important collection, prominent scholars who helped to establish medical anthropology as an area of study reflect on the field's past, present, and future. In doing so, they demonstrate that medical anthropology has developed dynamically, through its intersections with activism, with other subfields in anthropology, and with disciplines as varied as public health, the biosciences, and studies of race and ethnicity. Each of the contributors addresses one or more of these intersections. Some trace the evolution of medical anthropology in relation to fields including feminist technoscience, medical history, and international and area studies. Other contributors question the assumptions underlying mental health, global public health, and genetics and genomics, areas of inquiry now central to contemporary medical anthropology. Essays on the field's engagements with disability studies, public policy, and gender and sexuality studies illuminate the commitments of many medical anthropologists to public-health and human-rights activism. Essential reading for all those interested in medical anthropology, this collection offers productive insight into the field and its future, as viewed by some of the world's leading medical anthropologists. Marcia C. Inhorn is the William K. Lanman Jr. Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs at Yale University. She is past president of the Society for Medical Anthropology and the author, most recently, of The New Arab Man: Emergent Masculinities, Technologies, and Islam in the Middle East . Emily A. Wentzel l is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Iowa. Contributors . Lawrence Cohen, Didier Fassin, Faye Ginsburg, Marcia C. Inhorn, Arthur Kleinman, Margaret Lock, Emily Martin, Lynn M. Morgan, Richard Parker, Rayna Rapp, Merrill Singer, Emily A. Wentzell Introduction : Medical Anthropology At The Intersections / Marcia C. Inhorn And Emily A. Wentzell -- Grafting Together Medical Anthropology, Feminism And Technoscience / Emily Martin -- Getting At Anthropology Through Medical History : Notes On The Consumption Of Chinese Embryos And Fetuses In The Western Imagination / Lynn M. Morgan -- Making Peasants Protestant, And Other Projects : Medical Anthropology And Its Global Condition / Lawrence Cohen -- That Obscure Object Of Global Health / Didier Fassin -- Medical Anthropology And Mental Health : Five Questions For The Next Fifty Years / Arthur Kleinman -- From Genetics To Postgenomics And The Discovery Of The New Social Body / Margaret Lock -- Anthropology And The Study Of Disability Worlds / Rayna Rapp And Faye Ginsburg -- Medical Anthropology And Public Policy : Using Research To Change The World From What It Is To What We Believe It Should Be / Merrill Singer -- Critical Intersections And Engagements : Gender, Sexuality, Health, And Rights In Medical Anthropology / Richard Parker. Marcia C. Inhorn And Emily A. Wentzell, Editors. Edited Presentations From A Society For Medical Anthropology Conference At Yale University, Sept. 24-27, 2009, Titled Medical Anthropology At The Intersections: Celebrating Fifty Years Of Interdisciplinarity. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [251]-306) And Index. In this Important Collection, prominent scholars who helped to establish medical anthropology as an area of study reflect on the field's past, present, and future. In doing so, they demonstrate that medical anthropology has developed dynamically, through its intersections with activism, with other subfields in anthropology, and with disciplines as varied as public health, the biosciences, and studies of race and ethnicity. Each of the contributors addresses one or more of these intersections. Some trace the evolution of medical anthropology in relation to fields including feminist technoscience, medical history, and international and area studies. Other contributors question the assumptions underlying mental health, global public health, and genetics and genomics, areas of inquiry now central to contemporary medical anthropology. Essays on the field's engagements with disability studies, public policy, and gender and sexuality studies illuminate the commitments of many medical anthropologists to public-health and human-rights activism. Essential reading for all those interested in medical anthropology, this collection offers productive insight into the field and its future, as viewed by some of the world's leading medical anthropologists. Book jacket Introduction : medical anthropology at the intersections / Marcia C. Inhorn and Emily A. Wentzell Grafting together medical anthropology, feminism and technoscience / Emily Martin Getting at anthropology through medical history : notes on the consumption of Chinese embryos and fetuses in the Western imagination / Lynn Morgan Making peasants Protestant, and other projects : medical anthropology and its global condition / Lawrence Cohen That obscure object of global health / Didier Fassin Medical anthropology and mental health : five questions for the next fifty years / Arthur Kleinman From genetics to postgenomics and the discovery of the new social body / Margaret Lock Anthropology and the study of disability worlds / Rayna Rapp and Faye Ginsburg Critical intersections/engagements : gender, sexuality, health and rights in medical anthropology / Richard Parker Medical anthropology and public policy : using research to change the world from what it is to what we believe it should be / Merrill Singer. In Medical Anthropololgy at the Intersections, leading figures in medical anthropology reflect on the fields past, present, and future, considering how it has developed dynamically in relation to activism, other anthropological subfields, and other disciplines. This work offers productive insight into the field of medical anthropology and its future, as viewed by some of the world's leading medical anthropologists