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Previous efforts to build such a synthetic bridge have taken several labels, including the “Biology of Poverty” (Thomas 1998), “Critical and Humanistic Biology” (Blakey 1998), “Political Ecology of Biology and Health” (Baer 1996; Leatherman 2005), “Critical Biosocial” (Singer 2011), and “Critical Biocultural Medical Anthropology” (Goodman and Leatherman 1998; Leatherman and Goodman 2011; Singer 1998 ). We use the term “critical biocultural” to locate this work at the intersection of critical medical anthropology and biocultural health studies.

The goal of this chapter is to outline the history and debates leading to a critical biocultural anthropology and then to highlight contributions of a “critical biocultural” approach to medical anthropology. We first outline the emergence of critical biocultural approaches within anthropological studies of health and then discuss their place in medical anthropology and public health. We then review key areas of current research, and potential new directions for critical biocultural approaches. We highlight diverse contributions from biological and medical anthropologists that seek a deeper engagement with the social worlds of their interlocutors.