Medical Anthropology: The International Library of Essays in Anthropology by Cecil G. Helman

Abstract

Health& History 1112 2009 161 itswithdrawal from themedical pharmacopeia was not unique, and followed a well-established protocol often repeated with recreational drugs. With these two slight criticisms aside, Psychedelic Psychiatry is intensely interesting; an important and influential peri od of transition in psychiatry that has direct and important implications for current psychiatry, especially in relation to issues of cannabis and ecstasy. I highly recommend it to others, and have already passed the book on. MATHEW MARTIN-IVERSON UNIVERSITY OFWESTERN AUSTRALIA Cecil G. Helman, Medical Anthropology: The International Library of Essays in Anthropology (Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2008). ISBN 978-0-7546-2655-8 (HC). 580pp. Medical historians are by nature and necessity intellectual bowerbirds?seeking ideas and information in disparate disciplines?and so we cannot escape medical anthropology. This cross-disciplinary approach, however, can create difficulties. In 1913 Gertrude Stein wrote a 'Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.' In one sense, medical anthropology likewise is as easily described. Recent articles in anthropological journals have argued, however, that there is a pressing need to articulate what anthropological knowledge consists of. In other worlds what is a rose? For me, as a medical historian with an interest, but no expertise, inmedical anthropology, Stein's reflection struck a chord. Iwas aware of the crises thathad occurred periodically since thebeginnings ofmodern anthropol ogy in the late nineteenth century, one example being Freeman's assault onMargaret Mead and the subsequent response from her supporters. Anyone seeking a description of the volatile state of affairs in anthropology need go no furtherthan theAnnual Review ofAnthropology in the last decade for a fuller telling of the tale.And medical anthropology has been a central part of themore general disciplines of both social and physical anthropology since theCambridge Torres Strait expedition at thebeginning ofmodern anthropology. At times,within Helman's book, I have difficulty seeing a strong distinction between medical anthropology and sociology, as the frequency with which the terms 162 BOOKREVIEWS are interchanged in some of the chapters (for example, Christopher Keane's chapter, "What isWorld Health?") fails to clarify any distinction. Where is thedividing line between medical anthropology and medical sociology? Does it matter if there isn't one? In the introduction Helman points out that,as a distinct discipline medical anthropology is only a few decades old and that the need for this anthology is due to the fast changing nature of the discipline. He also points out that a major focus ofmedical anthropology since the 1980s has been its 'criticism ofWestern medicine' and has seen biomedicine as 'Western society's own ethnomedicine' (p. xvi). How different from its early days as the handmaiden of colonial rule! He proposes that in the future the discipline will have to become more of a truly 'biocultural discipline' with a greater awareness of the 'biological dimensions of human health and illness' (p. xxvi). Is this another expression of uncertainty about the direction medical anthropology has taken as a discipline? This anthology is clearly aimed at a university audience but contains nothing new, only previously published articles thatHelman considers tobe seminal. Also, presumably all the articles are available online. It reads very much like a course handbook. The anthology is divided into three sections. The first, Basic Concepts, includes two articles each on "food and nutrition," "alcohol and drug use," "medical pluralism and traditional healers," "languages of distress," and "rituals of childbirth and distress," along with eight articles on "transcultural psychiatry"?a favoured topic of the discipline. The second section, Applied Anthropology: International Health, ismade up of one article each on "what is 'World Health,'" "diarrhoeal diseases," "malaria," and "infectious diseases" and two articles each on "family planning" and "HIV." The third section, Contemporary Issues: The Body, contains four pieces on disparate topics such as the anthropology of birth and death, and body donations inBuddhist society. There is a good deal ofmaterial of interest in this volume, with notable absences that are to be expected in such anthologies, such as the work of Paul Farmer on infectious diseases. As someone who has been greatly impressed by theway Michael Marmot and Richard Wilkinson in the area of population health have synthesised sociological, anthropological, and historical methods to produce...