Medical anthropology studies "human health and disease, health care systems, and biocultural adaptation". It views humans from multidimensional and ecological perspectives. It is one of the most highly developed areas of anthropology and applied anthropology, and is a subfield of social and cultural anthropology that examines the ways in which culture and society are organized around or influenced by issues of health, health care and related issues.
Veena Das, FBA is the Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Anthropology at the Johns Hopkins University. Her areas of theoretical specialisation include the anthropology of violence, social suffering, and the state. Das has received multiple international awards including the Ander Retzius Gold Medal, delivered the prestigious Lewis Henry Morgan Lecture and was named a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Katherine Ann Dettwyler is an American anthropologist and advocate of breastfeeding. She was an adjunct professor at the University of Delaware. In 2017, she gained media attention for her comments regarding Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old college student who received fatal brain damage while imprisoned in North Korea.
Barbara Rylko-Bauer is a medical anthropologist and author who lives in the United States. She is an adjunct associate professor at Michigan State University's Department of Anthropology. She was born in 1950 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and emigrated with her parents to the United States that same year.
Pamela Irene Erickson is a medical anthropologist. The holder of both a Dr.P.H and a PhD, she is Professor of Anthropology and Community Medicine at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. A former editor of the scholarly journal Medical Anthropology Quarterly, much of her own research has focused on reproductive health among Hispanic girls and young women. Prominent among the publications resulting from these investigations is her 1998 book, Latina Adolescent Childbearing in East Los Angeles. Erickson has also done fieldwork in Nepal, the Philippines, India, and Ecuador and this work is reflected in her 2008 textbook, Ethnomedicine. A Fellow of the American Anthropological Association and the Society for Applied Anthropology, Erickson has also served on the Governing Council of the Family and Reproductive Health Section of the American Public Health Association. Additionally, she is co-editor, with Merrill Singer of the book series Advances in Critical Medical Anthropology with Routledge.
Lucy Philip Mair was a British anthropologist. She wrote on the subject of social organization, and contributed to the involvement of anthropological research in governance and politics. Her work on colonial administration was influential.
Marcia Claire Inhorn is a medical anthropologist and William K. Lanman Jr. Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs at Yale University where she serves as Chair of the Council on Middle East Studies. A specialist on Middle Eastern gender and health issues, Inhorn conducts research on the social impact of infertility and assisted reproductive technologies in Egypt, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, and Arab America.
Medical Anthropology Quarterly (MAQ) is an international peer-reviewed academic journal published for the Society for Medical Anthropology, a section of the American Anthropological Association, by Wiley-Blackwell. It publishes research and theory about human health and disease from all areas of medical anthropology. The purpose is to stimulate important ideas and debates in medical anthropology and to explore the links between medical anthropology, the parent discipline of anthropology, and neighboring disciplines in the health and social sciences. According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2019-2020 impact factor of 2.475, ranking it 18th out of 45 journals in the category "Social Sciences, Biomedical".
Ellen Gruenbaum is an American anthropologist. A specialist in researching medical practices that are based on a society’s culture.
Carolyn Sargent is a medical anthropologist.
Linda M. Hunt is a professor of anthropology specializing in Medical anthropology at Michigan State University. She teaches and researches on Medical Anthropology, Minority Health Research, and Research Methods in Cultural Anthropology. She has been researching issues related to diabetes management, the use race and genetics in clinical care, and pharmaceuticalization, among others.
Mary Margaret Clark (1925–2003) was an American medical anthropologist who is credited with founding the sub-discipline of medical anthropology.
Rayna Rapp is a professor and associate chair of anthropology at New York University, specializing in gender and health; the politics of reproduction; science, technology, and genetics; and disability in the United States and Europe. She has contributed over 80 published works to the field of anthropology, independently, as a co-author, editor, and foreword-writing, including Robbie Davis-Floyd and Carolyn Sargent's Childbirth and Authoritative Knowledge. Her 1999 book, Testing Women, Testing the Fetus: the Social Impact of Amniocentesis in America, received multiple awards upon release and has been praised for providing "invaluable insights into the first generation of women who had to decide whether or not to terminate their pregnancies on the basis of amniocentesis result". She co-authored many articles with Faye Ginsburg, including Enabling Disability: Rewriting Kinship, Reimagining Citizenship, a topic the pair has continued to research.
Birth as an American Rite of Passage is a book written by Robbie Davis-Floyd and published in 1992. It combines anthropology and first-hand accounts from mothers and doctors into a critical analysis of childbirth in America from a feminist perspective.
Birth in Four Cultures: A Crosscultural Investigation of Childbirth in Yucatan, Holland, Sweden, and the United States is an anthropological study of childbirth by Brigitte Jordan published in 1978.
Robbie Davis-Floyd is an American cultural, medical, and reproductive anthropologist, researcher, author, and international speaker primarily known for her research on childbirth, midwifery, and obstetrics. She chose to study women's birth experiences due to her own birth experiences and espouses the viewpoint that midwives play an important role in safeguarding positive outcomes for women giving birth. Beginning in 1983, she has given over 1000 presentations at universities and childbirth, midwifery, and obstetric conferences around the world.
Elizabeth Davis is an author, women's health care specialist, educator, consultant, and Certified Professional Midwife (CPM). She is a resident of Sebastopol, California and a mother of three children. Since 1977, Davis has pioneered a professional path for midwives in the United States while educating women around the world. Davis is globally active as an expert on midwifery and reproductive health issues. She has been involved with midwifery education, legalization, and the battle for professional autonomy. She lectures on reproductive rights, sexuality, and healing birth trauma.
Susan Elaine Emley Keefe is an American anthropologist and author. She is a professor emerita at Appalachian State University. Keefe has published books on Mexican-American culture and Appalachian health issues.
Andrew Jamieson Strathern is a British anthropologist.
Charlotte Davis Furth was an American scholar of Chinese history. She was a professor at California State University, Long Beach, and at the University of Southern California. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Fulbright fellowship for her research, and published several books.
