It is time that we move anthropology to center stage and learn how medical anthropologists think and work. Cecil G. Helman's Culture, Health and Illness , fourth edition, captures and explains these observations. The first edition appeared in 1984. The text is now used in more than 100 universities and medical schools and in 37 countries. The book emphasizes practice.
Early chapters define anthropology, culture, and society.
Other chapters detail cultural definitions of anatomy and physiology, food and nutrition, differing sectors of health care from folk to professional, the physician-patient relationship, drugs, ritual, and psychiatry. Later chapters deal with cultural factors in epidemiology and global health and include an added chapter on new research methods. The interspersed case studies tend to be somewhat wooden, but, given the space and objectivity necessary for textbook use, they still make a contribution. The appendix includes concise outlines covering each chapter, which are a ready guide for the practitioners to direct their inquiries. The references and author and subject indexes are quite thorough.