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Medical Anthropology

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Handbook of Social Sciences and Global Public Health

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Abstract

This chapter explores the insights that medical anthropology contributes to studies of health, medicine, diseases, and the body. It describes how the traditional anthropological methods of participant observation, extended field work, and the study of kinship relations can reveal previously obscured patterns of disease transition. The chapter also discusses the development of rapid ethnographic assessment tools, which can be used when extended periods of fieldwork are not possible. It also considers the application of medical anthropological understanding to new global concerns from the rise of new pandemics to the complex global questions surrounding surrogacy. This chapter demonstrates the significance of the insights and language of medical anthropology into the cross-disciplinary world of health research. Medical anthropology provides for an important way in which understandings of health can be enriched, supporting a deeper level of analysis that examines the multiple levels of health in society.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Richard Chenhall

  2. School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences, College of Human and Social Futures, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia

    Kate Senior

  3. School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia

    Daniela Heil

Authors
  1. Richard Chenhall
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  2. Kate Senior
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  3. Daniela Heil
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Richard Chenhall .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Health Sciences, Western Sydney University, Camberwell, VIC, Australia

    Pranee Liamputtong

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Chenhall, R., Senior, K., Heil, D. (2023). Medical Anthropology. In: Liamputtong, P. (eds) Handbook of Social Sciences and Global Public Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96778-9_4-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96778-9_4-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-96778-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-96778-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Social SciencesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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