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The Social Fabric of Health: An Introduction to Medical Anthropology. John M. Janzen. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002. xiv + 313pp.
In a field as diverse as medical anthropology, writing a textbook to introduce students to the discipline is a daunting undertaking. In The Social Fabric of Health, John Janzen has risen to the challenge, producing an engaging, accessible overview that gives readers an understanding of both the roots and the breadth of the field as well as its relevance to contemporary problems. The book's orientation leans toward interpretive and semiotic concerns, while also covering major issues and perspectives in ecological and biocultural approaches. For those who teach upper-division undergraduate and introductory graduate courses, this theoretically informed, topically up-to-date, and eminently readable text is a welcome resource.
The title metaphor of "social fabric" weaves through the book. Janzen uses it to highlight the multidimensional nature of health, the ways that the individual body is enveloped "with life-enabling means such as basic fresh water, shelter, significant others of family, friends, and community, as well as concepts, medicinal substances, therapeutic techniques, and institutions with which to come to terms with health problems and to seek healing" (p. 2). Images of fraying social fabrics, people falling through the safety net, repair and restoration, and innovative designs created by interweaving new ideas and social arrangements with ancient threads of cultural beliefs and practices extend the metaphor. The book's organization has its own warp-and-weft structure, with each chapter organized around central theoretical or historical themes crosscut and illustrated with vignettes from the field research or clinical experiences of...