Abstract
Autism understood in cultural context is as essential as autism understood as a neurological condition. Psychological Anthropology (PA) includes the comparative, contextual study of culture and mental life. PA aspires to be holistic, open to plural mixed methods, comparative, collaborative with other disciplines, and inclusive across the levels of analysis. This essay considers six themes in PA that also are reflected in the chapters in our volume: difference is both biological and social; diverse experiences of disability are central; cultural beliefs regarding disability vary widely around the world; disability is connected to other differences in society, including deprivation, exclusion and vulnerability due to race, class and resources; social and sociolinguistic mechanisms that are important for understanding disability also are important for studying many other topics in PA generally; and diverse family and parenting practices and everyday routine activities are important in the field of PA, perhaps especially so for ASD, as are the institutional and structural conditions in society that condition daily routines. The contributions of PA—particularly ecocultural theory, cultural models, and explanatory models of illness—are important for theory, methods, and empirical outcomes for autism spectrum conditions, and open up possibilities for new approaches to ASD.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bernheimer, Lucinda, and Thomas Weisner. 2007. “‘Let Me Just Tell You What I Do All Day …’: The Family Story at the Center of Intervention Research and Practice.” Infants and Young Children 20 (3): 192–201.
Brezis, Rachel, Thomas Weisner, Tamara Daley, Nidhi Singhal, Merry Barua, and Shreya Chollera. 2015. “Parenting a Child with Autism in India: Narratives Before and After a Parent–Child Intervention Program.” Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 39 (2): 277–298.
Cohen, Alex, Vikram Patel, R. Thara, and Oye Gureje. 2008. “Questioning an Axiom: Better Prognosis for Schizophrenia in the Developing World?” Schizophrenia Bulletin 34 (2): 229–244.
Daley, Tamara, Thomas Weisner, and Nidhi Singhal. 2014. “Adults with Autism in India: A Mixed-Method Approach to Make Meaning of Daily Routines.” Social Science and Medicine 116: 142–149.
Edgerton, Robert. 1967. The Cloak of Competence: Stigma in the Lives of the Mentally Retarded. Berkeley: University of California Press.
———. 1969. “On the ‘Recognition’ of Mental Illness.” In Changing Perspectives in Mental Illness, edited by Stanley C. Plog and Robert B. Edgerton, 49–72. New York: Rinehart and Winston.
———. 1992. Sick Societies: Challenging the Myth of Primitive Harmony. New York: The Free Press.
Edgerton, Robert, and Alex Cohen. 1994. “Culture and Schizophrenia: The DOSMD Challenge.” The British Journal of Psychiatry 164 (2): 222–231.
Fein, Elizabeth. 2015. “No One Has to Be Your Friend: Asperger’s Syndrome and the Vicious Cycle of Social Disorder in Late Modern Identity Markets.” Ethos 43 (1): 82–107.
Gallimore, Ronald, Jennifer Coots, Thomas Weisner, Helen Garnier, and Donald Guthrie. 1996. “Family Responses to Children with Early Developmental Delays II: Accommodation Intensity and Activity in Early and Middle Childhood.” American Journal on Mental Retardation 101: 215–232.
Goodley, Dan, and Claire Tregaskis. 2006. “Storying Disability and Impairment: Retrospective Accounts of Disabled Family Life.” Qualitative Health Research 16 (5): 630–646.
Groce, Nora. 1985. Everybody Here Spoke Sign Language: Hereditary Deafness on Martha’s Vineyard. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
———. 1999. “Disability in Cross-Cultural Perspective: Rethinking Disability.” The Lancet 354 (9180): 756–757.
Hay, Cameron, ed. 2016. Methods that Matter: Integrating Mixed Methods for More Effective Social Science Research. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Ingstad, Benedicte, and Susan Whyte, eds. 1995. Disability and Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Kleinman, Arthur. 2008. “Commentary on Alex Cohen et al: ‘Questioning an Axiom: Better Prognosis for Schizophrenia in the Developing World.’” Schizophrenia Bulletin 34 (2): 249–250.
Marshall, M. (1996). “Problematizing Impairment: Cultural Competence in the Carolines.” Ethnology 35 (94): 249–263.
Murphy, Robert. 1987. The Body Silent: A Journey into Paralysis. New York: Henry Holt.
Ochs, Elinor, and Olga Solomon. 2010. “Autistic Sociality.” Ethos 38 (1): 69–92.
Ochs, Elinor, Tamar Kremer-Sadlik, Karen Sirota, and Olga Soloman. 2004. “Autism and the Social World: An Anthropological Perspective.” Discourse Studies 6 (2): 147–183.
Orbuch, Terri. 1997. “People’s Accounts Count: The Sociology of Accounts.” Annual Review of Sociology 23: 455–478.
Skinner, Debra, and Thomas S. Weisner. 2007. “Sociocultural Studies of Families of Children with Intellectual Disabilities.” Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Research Reviews 13: 302–312.
Solomon, Olga, and Nancy Bagatell. 2010. “Introduction: Autism: Rethinking the Possibilities.” Ethos 38 (1): 1–7.
Stiker, Henri-Jacques. 1997. A History of Disability. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Weisner, Thomas. 1996. “The 5 to 7 Transition as an Ecocultural Project.” In The Five to Seven Year Shift: The Age of Reason and Responsibility, edited by A.J. Sameroff and M.M. Haith, 295–326. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
———. 2002. “Ecocultural Understanding of Children’s Developmental Pathways.” Human Development 45 (4): 275–281.
———. 2008. “Well Being and Sustainability of the Daily Routine of Life.” In The Good Life: Well-Being in Anthropological Perspective, edited by G. Mathews and C. Izquerdo, 349–380. New York: Berghahn Press.
———. 2015. “Childhood: Anthropological Aspects.” In International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2nd ed., vol. 3, edited by James D. Wright, 451–458. Oxford: Elsevier.
———. 2017. “Culture, Context, and the Integration of Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in the Study of Human Development.” In Advances in Culture and Psychology, edited by M. Gelfand, C.Y. Chiu, and Y.Y. Hong, chapter 4, 153–215. New York: Oxford University Press.
Zetlin, Andrea, Thomas Weisner, and Ronald Gallimore. 1985. “Diversity, Shared Functioning, and the Role of Benefactors: A Study of Parenting by Retarded Persons.” In Children of Handicapped Parents: Research and Clinical Perspectives, edited by S.K. Thurman, 69–95. New York: Academic Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Weisner, T.S. (2018). Psychological Anthropology and the Study of Disability. In: Fein, E., Rios, C. (eds) Autism in Translation. Culture, Mind, and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93293-4_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93293-4_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-93292-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-93293-4
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)