Anthropology and Epidemiology

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

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2. Historical and Theoretical Perspectives

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Introduction: Medical Anthropology and Epidemiology

      • Frederick L. Dunn, Craig R. Janes

      Pages 3-34

   3. Early Work in Anthropology and Epidemiology: From Social Medicine to the Germ Theory, 1840 to 1920

      • James Trostle

      Pages 35-57

   4. Anthropology and Epidemiology in the Twentieth Century: A Selective History of Collaborative Projects and Theoretical Affinities, 1920 to 1970

      • James Trostle

      Pages 59-94

3. Infectious Diseases

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 95-95

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   2. Epidemiological Research on Infectious Disease: Quantitative Rigor or Rigormortis? Insights from Ethnomedicine

      • Marilyn K. Nations

      Pages 97-123

   3. Ethnicity, Ecology and Mortality in Northwestern Thailand

      • Peter Kunstadter

      Pages 125-156

   4. The AIDS Epidemic in San Francisco: Epidemiological and Anthropological Perspectives

      • E. Michael Gorman

      Pages 157-172

4. Non-Infectious Diseases

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 173-173

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   2. Migration and Hypertension: An Ethnography of Disease Risk in an Urban Samoan Community

      • Craig R. Janes

      Pages 175-211

   3. The Meaning of Lumps: A Case Study of the Ambiguities of Risk

      • Sandra M. Gifford

      Pages 213-246

5. Psycho-Social Conditions

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 247-247

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   2. Colonial Stress in the Canadian Arctic: An Ethnography of Young Adults Changing

      • John D. O’Neil

      Pages 249-274

   3. Respondent-Identified Reasons for Change and Stability in Alcohol Consumption as a Concomitant of the Aging Process

      • Ron Stall

      Pages 275-302

   4. Identifying Psychosocial Disorders in Children: On Integrating Epidemiological and Anthropological Understandings

      • Robert A. Rubinstein, Janet D. Perloff

      Pages 303-332

6. Back Matter

   Pages 333-349

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Over the past two decades increasing interest has emerged in the contribu­ tions that the social sciences might make to the epidemiological study of patterns of health and disease. Several reasons can be cited for this increasing interest. Primary among these has been the rise of the chronic, non-infectious diseases as important causes of morbidity and mortality within Western populations during the 20th century. Generally speaking, the chronic, non­ infectious diseases are strongly influenced by lifestyle variables, which are themselves strongly influenced by social and cultural forces. The under­ standing of the effects of the behavioral factors in, say, hypertension, thus requires an understanding of the social and cultural factors which encourage obesity, a sedentary lifestyle, non-compliance with anti-hypertensive medica­ tions (or other prescribed regimens), and stress. Equally, there is a growing awareness that considerations of human behavior and its social and cultural determinants are important for understanding the distribution and control of infectious diseases. Related to this expansion of epidemiologic interest into the behavioral realm 'has been the development of etiological models which focus on the psychological, biological and socio-cultural characteristics of hosts, rather than exclusive concern with exposure to a particular agent or even behavioral risk. Also during this period advances in statistical and computing techniques have made accessible the ready testing of multivariate causal models, and so have encouraged the measurement of the effects of social and cultural factors on disease occurrence.

• AIDS
• epidemiological
• epidemiology
• ethnography
• migration
• social medicine

`This book will be a valuable addition to the libraries of schools of public health and departments of preventive medicine; but even more to medical school libraries where some of the approaches described are little known at this time.'
Transcultural Psychiatric Research Review (1988)
`...a most welcome book, It is the first of its kind, which in its title and content clearly confirms the strong link between health, disease and socio-cultural context.'
Health Policy and Planning, 3:2
`The book is good, and should certainly be ordered for university libraries wherever anthropology is taught.'
British Medical Anthropology Society Newletter (1988)

• Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Denver, USA

  Craig R. Janes

• Department of Urban Studies, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, USA

  Ron Stall

• The Alcohol Research Group, Berkeley, USA

  Ron Stall

• Division of Community Health, State Health Commission of Victoria, Australia

  Sandra M. Gifford

Policies and ethics