HEALTH, RISK, AND ADVERSITY

Edited by Catherine Panter-Brick and Agustin Fuentes
Foreword by Alan Goodman

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"These are vibrant and important treatments of socio-cultural concepts in health that fit well into medical anthropology, but also go beyond that. Their contribution lies in reminding and refining how human health and biology are produced, perceived, and communicated in a deep social context that includes history, politics, economics, and current global culture, especially modern media.… The editors have brilliantly organized the volume.  ·  Stephen T. McGarvey, Professor of Community Health and Anthropology, Brown University

Research on health involves evaluating the disparities that are systematically associated with the experience of risk, including genetic and physiological variation, environmental exposure to poor nutrition and disease, and social marginalization. This volume provides a unique perspective - a comparative approach to the analysis of health disparities and human adaptability - and specifically focuses on the pathways that lead to unequal health outcomes. From an explicitly anthropological perspective situated in the practice and theory of biosocial studies, this book combines theoretical rigor with more applied and practice-oriented approaches and critically examines infectious and chronic diseases, reproduction, and nutrition.

Catherine Panter-Brick is Professor of Anthropology at Durham University, UK. Her research focuses on critical risks to health across key stages of human development. She has edited severa books to bridge research findings into teaching practice, such as Biosocial Perspectives on Children (1998), Hormones, Health, and Behavior (1999), Abandoned Children (2000), and Hunter-Gatherers (2001). She is Senior Editor (Medical Anthropology Section) for Social Science & Medicine.

Agustín Fuentes is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame, US. His research interests focus on primate and human behavior, pathogen transmission, and patterns in human and primate evolution. He has co-edited three books, The Non-Human Primates (1999), Primates Face to Face (2002), Primates in Perspective (2006) and recently completed a textbook in biological anthropology, Core Concepts in Biological Anthropology (2006). His most recent book is Evolution of Human Behavior (2008).

Series: Volume 2, Studies of the Biosocial Society

Contents

Preface: Framing Risk, Adversity and Health
Alan Goodman
Introduction  
Chapter 1. Health, Risk, Adversity: A Contextual View from Anthropology 
Catherine Panter-Brick and Agustín Fuentes
PART I: HEALTH RISKS AND DISEASES IN TRANSITION
Commentary I: Understanding Health Past and Present 
Charlotte Roberts
Chapter 2. Health Consequences of Social and Ecological Adversity Among Indigenous Siberian Populations: Biocultural and Evolutionary Implications
William R Leonard, J Josh Snodgrass and Mark V Sorenson
Chapter 3. A Multidisciplinary Approach to Understanding the Risk and Context of Emerging Primate-borne Zoonoses
Lisa Jones-Engel and Gregory Engel 
Chapter 4. Viral Panic, Vulnerability and the Next Pandemic
Ann Herring 
PART II: GENERATIONAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL CHANGE
Commentary II: Thinking About Health Through Time and Across Generations
Darna Dufour 
Chapter 5. Adaptation, Health and the Temporal Domain of Human Reproductive Physiology
Peter Ellison and Grazyna Jasienska
Chapter 6. Changes in Risk Factors for Breast Cancer in Migrant Women: An inter-generation comparison among Bangladeshis in the UK
Alejandra Núñez-de-la-Mora and Gillian R. Bentley 
Chapter 7. Family Structure and Child Growth in sub-Saharan Africa: Assessing “hidden risk”
Daniel W. Sellen
PART III: GENE EVOLUTION, ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH
Commentary III: Explaining Health Inequalities
Bill Dressler
Chapter 8. The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease 
Keith Godfrey and Mark Hanson
Chapter 9. Beyond the Gradient: An Integrative Anthropological Perspective on Social Stratification, Stress, and Health
Thomas McDade
Chapter 10. The Slavery Hypothesis: An Evaluation of a Genetic-Deterministic Explanation for Hypertension Prevalence Rate (HPR) Inequalities 
Lorena Madrigal, Mwenza Blell, Ernesto Ruiz and Flory Otarola
Conclusion
Chapter 11. Adversity, Risk and Health: A View from Public Health
Martin White
Glossary
Index