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The Face of Social Suffering: The Life History of a Street Drug Addict. Merrill Singer. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 2006 (paper), viii + 176 pp.
Merrill Singer's most recent book, an urban life history of a drug dealer and addict named Tony, is a family affair, of sorts, for the cover art was done by the author's son, Jacob Singer. It is also an example of relevant anthropology; the elements of Tony's troubled life, marked by abuse and neglect; by cycles of violence, drug use, and repeated incarcerations; by the dearth of positive opportunities; and eventually by HIV, are reflected frequently in the news headlines of the day.
A New York Times article caught my eye as I was reading this hook. It documented the ever-growing plight of young black men in the United States who face alarming rates of high school dropout, unemployment, and incarceration (Eckholm 2006). Tony happens to be of Italian and Irish descent, but the lives of these other young men mirror many facets of Tony's story: unstable and violent family contexts, quitting school to sell drugs, heroin addiction-readily maintained despite repeated stretches in jail for a variety of crimes-and a desire to not "be a criminal at 50" but with little cause for the hope of being able to turn their lives around.
Racism plays a critical role in these social phenomena. But as Tony's life demonstrates, so do larger social structures that help create and maintain the racism, as well as the poverty and inequality, neglect of urban social institutions, and declining mainstream job opportunities coupled with an underground drug economy. As Singer points out repeatedly, failed social policies regarding public health, criminal justice, education, and the war on drugs are all intersecting factors in Tony's story and in the larger story reflected in daily headlines.
For several decades now, Singer has championed the theoretical orientation of critical medical anthropology, which argues for a broad and fluid understanding of culture that incorporates both meaning and structure. "The issue is not simply webs of significance but how they intersect with webs of power" (p. 148). Health risks and behaviors such as alcoholism, drug addiction, and street violence are analyzed within a political-economic framework that includes a heightened awareness of...