Earliest phases in the evolution of sickness and healing

Journal/Book: Med Anthropol Q. 1997; 11: 4350 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 640, Arlington, VA 22203. Amer Anthropological Assoc. 26-55.

Abstract: Sickness and healing constitute the root concepts that center medical anthropological inquiry and give the field its identity. Here, they are held to manifest a biological adaption designed by evolution that requires culture for its final realization. Sickness and healing thus provide anthropology with a biocultural form that has changed in content and expression during cultural evolution. The early phases of this evolution, those bearing the most apparent influences of the environment of evolutionary adaptedness, are reviewed and analyzed in the article. Some of the implications of this for medical anthropology are discussed.

Note: Article Fabrega H, Univ Pittsburgh, Sch Med, Western Psychiat Inst & Clin, 3811 Ohara St, Pittsburgh,PA 15213 USA

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