This handbook has the ambition to introduce the non-initiated reader into the universe of medical anthropology, showing different ways in which this discipline engages with, challenges and supports various therapeutic practices.  Despite  this goal, the book should not be read as an introduction to medical anthropology, rather as a guide for health professionals to the many ways cultural factors may interfere with their work. The book is structured in a way that it can be read independently, but it also connects to another product of the project Healthy Diversity, especially to the book: “Manual  of Critical Incidents” – a collective enterprise bringing together the perspectives of 6 European countries on health sector, interculturality and medical anthropology.

*The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained there.

Table of contents

A. THE AIM OF THE BOOK
B. CULTURE IN HEALING, HEALING IN CULTURES
C. SAMPLES OF MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

A. HEALTH INEQUALITIES: BARRIERS TO ACCESS

1. Self-selective mechanisms: the institutional patient paths in the treatment of arterial diseases (arteriosclerosis obliterans) – the case of the Roma (HU)
2. Complex entanglements: migration and health in Austria (AT)

B. HEALTH AND INTERSECTIONALITY

1. Using intersection theory to explore the multi dimensions of inequality and difference (UK)
2. Elderly ethnic Danes´ and immigrants´ use of public care services (DK)
3. Women and mothers: Meaning of their vulnerability in migration flows (IT)

C. CULTURAL AND SOCIAL VARIATIONS IN EXPERIENCING HEALTH AND SICKNESS

1. Stabbing pain? A burning heart? Cultural variations in the experience of pain (AT)
2. Perception of and reaction to the “Chagas” disease in a non-endemic Country: A Multidisciplinary Research, Bologna, Italy (IT)

D. MEDICAL PLURALISM

1. Why alternative medicine is so popular and what do we learn about the European medical system in a Chinese clinic? (HU)
2. Indigenous and biomedical concepts of disease: A complementary approach to HIV/AIDS prevention in Mozambique (AT)
3. How come the antiretroviral therapy is failing in a continent like Africa where the importance of these treatments is crucial? (FR)

E. HEALTH PROFESSIONALS FACING CULTURAL DIFFERENCE

1. Intercultural Encounters in Danish Hospitals – Lived Experience of Diversity (DK)
2. Health Professionals and how they perceive patients from diverse ethnic groups (UK)

A. THE BODY IN A CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

B. THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER

C. DYING, MOURNING AND END OF LIFE RITUALS IN DIFFERENT CULTURES