The field of medical anthropology is a discipline that incorporates the perspective of a wide range of approaches — from anthropologists, sociologists, epidemiologists, physicians, nurses, public health administrators, biologists, and many others, including the general public — to health care. Medical anthropology is a good example of how anthropologists have been able to relate the natural sciences to the humanities. It is the study of how people in different cultural settings experience health and illness. Such experiences are examined in the light of a particular community's knowledge about sickness and misfortune concerning broader moral and religious ideas. At the moment, medical anthropology is trying to maintain its cultural interest in questions of knowledge, meaning and politics in the broader discipline of anthropology - without becoming simply an 'applied' sub-discipline. This valuable book is an important study guide for medicine, biology and social work graduates, who are attracted to careers in international aid and social services, and health professions such as nursing and clinical psychology.