Читать книгу A Companion to Medical Anthropology онлайн

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One of the consistently synergistic conditions that applies to medical anthropology in general, and applied medical anthropology in particular, is the impetus in many US universities to support the ideal of a synthesis of the theory and methods embodied in a four-field approach to anthropology (socio-cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, biological anthropology, and archeology or prehistoric anthropology). Some US anthropology programs have stubbornly clung to the opportunity to maintain all four fields in their undergraduate and graduate programs, in the face of both intellectual challenges and the tendency to fragment into competing or more narrowly focused departments or programs. Medical anthropology has benefited from this stubbornness by producing individuals who are both comfortable and competent in multi-disciplinary, multi-theory, multi-sectoral, multi-focal projects and programs. This acknowledgement of the viability of a four-field approach has also enhanced participation by anthropologists in the emerging areas of “team science.”