Medical Anthropology at the Intersections: Histories, Activisms and Futures

Abstract

Inhorn, M.C. and Wentzell, E.A. (eds) . Medical Anthropology at the Intersections: Histories, Activisms and Futures . Durham : Duke University Press , 2012 ( £16.99) (pbk) viii + 342 pp . ISBN: 978-0-8223-5270-9 . In 2009, those associated with medical anthropology assembled at Yale University to mark the subdiscipline’s 50th anniversary. The conference convened plenaries by the field’s luminaries, nine of which are now published in this volume, edited by Marcia Inhorn and Emily Wentzell (who also served as conference organizers). Reading it reinvigorated sentiments I felt as conference attendee; in short, the impressive quality of theoretical and empirical contributions from this commanding domain of anthropology is significantly diminished by the structuring conceit of a fifty-year celebration. In their introduction, Inhorn and Wentzell define a central concept in the volume, ‘intersections’ (or ‘interdisciplinarity’, used interchangeably) as ‘one’s ability to intersect on a theoretical or methodological level with one or more academic fields’ (p.4). Calling contributors skilled practitioners in this regard, each chapter takes the reader to a crossroad in medical anthropology and topics not subsumed by the subdiscipline. Such sites include: feminism and technoscience (Emily Martin); medical history (Lynn Morgan); international and area studies (Lawrence Cohen); global public health (Didier Fassin); mental health (Arthur Kleinman); genetics/(post)genomics (Margaret Lock); disability studies (Rayna Rapp and Faye Ginsberg); public policy (Merrill Singer); and gender, sexuality, and rights (Robert Parker). Layered onto these topical intersections are three more analytics introduced by Inhorn and Wentzell, creating a three-by-three configuration of essay-groupings. ‘Histories’ provide an ‘intellectual genealogy’ (p.6), explored by Martin, Morgan, and Cohen; ‘Queries’ are epistemological critiques of ‘meanings of accepted notions’ (p.10), taken up by Fassin, Kleinman, and Lock; and ‘Activisms’ as ‘action and advocacy’ (p.14) are engaged by Rapp and Ginsberg, Singer, and Parker. Unfortunately, the volume’s analytical framework inadvertently downplays the significant contributions of the chapters as individual pieces, and as a collection. Contradictory guidance is provided as to how to interact with the chapters, by partitioning histories, queries, and activisms, whilst also directing the reader (telling us we ‘must’) to combine analytics as ‘phases of interdisciplinary research’ (p.6) in all endeavours. Curiously, each of the chapters could easily be placed in any grouping. For example, Lock’s chapter on genetic/genomic science and Parker’s on gender, sexuality, HIV/AIDS, and rights-based movements rely upon historical accounts and could have been placed in the history grouping. Similarly, Cohen’s unpacking of area studies and then offering (re)territorializing possibilities is as much a critique of knowledge categories as any of the designated ‘Queries’. Some chapters might even deepen the analytic grouping, such as ‘Activisms’, which would be enriched by moving beyond conventional concerns of policy, and social movements arranged by familiar identity groups. The collection includes thoughtful meta-reviews from the scattered corners of the field (some authors, like Martin and Parker, offer up interesting personal accounts of the critical events shaping their intellectual trajectories). The volume’s overarching structure results in stifling critical engagement through couching contributions as ‘raising a glass’ to the achievements being showcased. This limits the extent to which tensions within medical anthropology can be explored. This intra-disciplinary focus exposes critical epistemological, political, and moral/ethical fault lines. For example, Cohen’s chapter registers discomfort with what he calls the subdiscipline’s timeless moralism, while Parker writes unequivocally that, from the angle of health and human rights, all those associated should be ‘acutely aware of their moral responsibility’ (p.236). Kleinman advocates a ‘much deeper phenomenology of the forms of social suffering’ (p.120) with respect to mental health, while Fassin questions this very zeitgeist that holds up life as the ‘highest value’, in a world simultaneously recognized as very unequally distributing life chances. Rather than helping readers grapple with such profound concerns, the editors direct our attention away from it. Doing so averts frictions, which are not generally welcome at birthday parties. The celebratory tone of this volume neglects the potential for enrichment of the field through exploration of its troublesome non-alignments. Medical anthropology has always been more than the sum of its parts, and its maps; so, too is this book, if read beyond the volume’s defined horizons.