Social Lives of Medicines: 10 (Cambridge Studies in Medical Anthropology)

Author: Hardon, Anita

Brand: Cambridge University Press

Edition: Illustrated

Binding: paperback

Format: Illustrated

Number Of Pages: 212

Release Date: 30-01-2003

Part Number: Illustrated

Details: Product Description


Medicines are the core of treatment in biomedicine, as in many other medical traditions. As material things, they have social as well as pharmacological lives, with people and between people. They are tokens of healing and hope, as well as valuable commodities. Each chapter of this book shows drugs in the hands of particular actors: mothers in Manila, villagers in Burkina Faso, women in the Netherlands, consumers in London, market traders in Cameroon, pharmacists in Mexico, injectionists in Uganda, doctors in Sri Lanka, industrialists in India, and policymakers in Geneva. Each example is used to explore a different problem in the study of medicines, such as social efficacy, experiences of control, skepticism and cultural politics, commodification of health, the attraction of technology and the marketing of images and values. The book shows how anthropologists deal with the sociality of medicines, through their ethnography, their theorizing, and their uses of knowledge.


Review


'… [this] recent volume in the Cambridge Studies in Medical Anthropology series [is an] important contribution to the study of medicines, not only for medical anthropologists, but for anybody who wants to understand what medicines do and how they do what they do … This book does a good job of presenting some of the research that has been done, and makes a persuasive plea for more anthropological and public health attention to this area.' Journal of Biosocial Science

'It is difficult to do justice to a book that is full of so many different ethnographic studies and details. The plethora of ethnographic material is the book's big strength.' Journal of Social Anthropology


Book Description


Medicines are more than chemical substances with medical effects. They have social lives because they move between people; they carry meaning and offer possibilities for communication and control. This book uses examples from five continents to examine central problems in the study of medicines including social efficacy, symbolism, and commodification.


About the Author


Susan Reynolds Whyte is Professor at the Institute of Anthropology of the University of Copenhagen.

Sjaak van der Geest is Professor of Medical Anthropology at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology of the University of Amsterdam.

Anita Hardon is Professor and Director of the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research at the University of Amsterdam.

EAN: 9780521804691

Package Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches

Languages: English