Critical Medical Anthropology
Perspectives in and from Latin America
Jennie Gamlin (Editor), Sahra Gibbon (Editor), Paola M. Sesia (Editor), Lina Berrío (Editor)
Critical Medical Anthropology presents inspiring work from scholars doing and engaging with ethnographic research in or from Latin America, addressing themes that are central to contemporary Critical Medical Anthropology (CMA). This includes issues of inequality, embodiment of history, indigeneity, non-communicable diseases, gendered violence, migration, substance abuse, reproductive politics and judicialisation, as these relate to health.
The collection of ethnographically informed research, including original theoretical contributions, reconsiders the broader relevance of CMA perspectives for addressing current global healthcare challenges from and of Latin America. It includes work spanning four countries in Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Guatemala and Peru) as well as the trans-migratory contexts they connect and are defined by. By drawing on diverse social practices, it addresses challenges of central relevance to medical anthropology and global health, including reproduction and maternal health, sex work, rare and chronic diseases, the pharmaceutical industry and questions of agency, political economy, identity, ethnicity, and human rights.
Praise for Critical Medical Anthropology
‘This collection of richly documented chapters inspires us to think productively about the potential of comparative and collaborative research.’
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
‘Successfully provides a roadmap to guide scholars beyond their language barriers and engage with literature outside of English.[Critical Medical Anthropology] makes important contributions to CMA and related fields. We look forward to the fruitful work and collaboration it inspires.’
American Journal of Human Biology
‘A substantial, complex and multi-faceted volume.’
Journal of Iberian and Latin American Research
‘A necessary contribution [and] an important reference in studies.’
Campos
‘Critical Medical Anthropology offers thought-provoking interventions to understandings of health, illness and healthcare. It extends a legacy of critical anthropological research, inviting and stimulating south-north dialogue, while generating inspiring new thinking at the intersections of health, social justice, human rights and political economy.’
Ciara Kierans, University of Liverpool
‘Critical Medical Anthropology: Perspectives in and from Latin America is more than simply a commendable effort toward correcting exclusionary practices of citation and giving Third World intellectual traditions their due place; it also invites us to rethink our theoretical and methodological canons going forward.’
Medical Anthropology Quarterly
Preface: Critical medical anthropology in Latin America: Trends, contributions, possibilities
Eduardo Menéndez
Introduction
Paola M. Sesia, Jennie Gamlin, Sahra Gibbon and Lina Berrio
Part I: Intercultural health: Critical approaches and current challenges
1. Anthropological engagement and interdisciplinary research: The critical approach in indigenous health in Brazil
Esther Jean Langdon and Eliana E. Diehl
2. Critical anthropologies of maternal health: Theorising from the field in Mexican indigenous communities
Jennie Gamlin and Lina Berrio
3. Susto, the anthropology of fear, and critical medical anthropology in Mexico and Peru
Frida Jacobo Herrera and David Orr
4. Post-coital pharmaceuticals and abortion ambiguity: Avoiding unwanted pregnancy using emergency contraception and misoprostol in Lima, Peru
Rebecca Irons
Part II: Globalisation and contemporary challenges of border spaces and biologised difference
5. Migrant trajectories and health experiences: Processes of health/illness/care for drug use among migrants in the Mexico-United States bbrder region
Olga Lidia Olivas Hernández
6. Border Spaces: Stigma and social vulnerability to HIV-AIDS among Central American male migrants at the Mexico–
Guatemala border
Rubén Muñoz, Carmen Fernández Casanueva, Sonia Morales Miranda and Kimberly C. Brouwer
7. The ethno-racial basis of chronic diseases: Re-thinking race and ethnicity from a critical epidemiological perspective
Melania Calestani and Laura Montesi
Part III: Political economy and judicialisation
8. Consultation rooms annexed to pharmacies: The Mexican private, low cost, health service system
Rosa María Osorio Carranza
9. Naming, framing and shaming through obstetric viloence: A critical approach to the judicialisation of maternal health rights violations in Mexico
Paola M. Sesia
10. Judicialisation and the politics of rare disease in Brazil: Re-thinking activism and inequalities
Waleska Aureliano and Sahra Gibbon
Afterword
Claudia Fonseca
Index
DOI: 10.14324/111.9781787355828
Number of pages: 312
Number of illustrations: 4
Publication date: 12 March 2020
PDF ISBN: 9781787355828
EPUB ISBN: 9781787355859
Hardback ISBN: 9781787355842
Paperback ISBN: 9781787355835
Jennie Gamlin (Editor)
Jennie Gamlin is Senior Wellcome Trust Fellow at the UCL Institute for Global Health. She works on decolonising gender and global health and critical theories of violence in Latin America.
Sahra Gibbon (Editor)
Sahra Gibbon is Associate Professor in Medical Anthropology at UCL Anthropology. She works on the social and cultural aspects of developments in genomics and public health in the UK, Cuba and Brazil.
Paola M. Sesia (Editor)
Paola M. Sesia is Professor of Medical Anthropology at CIESAS, Mexico, and works on reproductive, maternal and indigenous health from a social justice and rights perspective.
Lina Berrío (Editor)
Lina Berrio is Associate Professor of Medical Anthropology at CIESAS, Mexico. She works on reproductive and maternal health in indigenous and afrodescendant population.
‘A necessary contribution [and] an important reference in studies.’ Campos
‘A substantial, complex and multi-faceted volume.’
Journal of Iberian and Latin American Research
‘Successfully provides a roadmap to guide scholars beyond their language barriers and engage with literature outside of English. [Critical medical anthropology] makes important contributions to CMA and related fields. We look forward to the fruitful work and collaboration it inspires.’ American Journal of Human Biology
‘Critical Medical Anthropology: Perspectives in and from Latin America is more than simply a commendable effort toward correcting exclusionary practices of citation and giving Third World intellectual traditions their due place; it also invites us to rethink our theoretical and methodological canons going forward.’
Medical Anthropology Quarterly
‘This collection of richly documented chapters inspires us to think productively about the potential of comparative and collaborative research.’
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
‘Critical Medical Anthropology offers thought-provoking interventions to understandings of health, illness and healthcare. It extends a legacy of critical anthropological research, inviting and stimulating south-north dialogue, while generating inspiring new thinking at the intersections of health, social justice, human rights and political economy.’- Ciara Kierans, University of Liverpool
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