ISSN:
0084-6570
Source:
Annual Reviews Electronic Back Volume Collection 1932-2001ff
Topics:
Ethnic Sciences
,
Biology
Notes:
Abstract This review discusses pharmaceuticals as social and cultural phenomena by following their "life cycle" from production, marketing, and prescription to distribution, purchasing, consumption, and finally their efficacy. Each phase has its own particular context, actors, and transactions and is characterized by different sets of values and ideas. The anthropology of pharmaceuticals is relevant to medical anthropology and health policy. It also touches the heart of general anthropology with its long-time interest in the concepts of culture vs nature, symbolization and social transformation, and its more recent concerns with the cultural construction of the body and processes of globalization and localization. The study of transactions and meanings of pharmaceuticals in diverse social settings provides a particularly appropriate empirical base for addressing these new theoretical issues.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.25.1.153
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