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Psychological and Medical Anthropology: Overview of the Field

Overview of the Field of Psychological Anthropology

Brief Introductions:

Ingham, J.M. (2001) "Psychological anthropology," in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, pp. 12349-12355.

Kraus, A. (2001) "Psychiatry: anthropological aspects," in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, pp. 13382-12287.

 

General Textbooks and Readers in Psychological Anthropology:

Conerly, Carole Casey and Robert B. Edgerton (2005).  A companion to psychological anthropology:  modernity and psychocultural change.

Ingham,  John M. (1996), Psychological Anthropology Reconsidered. Reprinted in Conerly Casey & Robert Edgerton, eds. (2005), A Companion to Psychological Anthropology

 Lindholm, Charles (2001), Culture and Identity: the History, Theory, and Practice of Psychological Anthropology  Print Only: Geisel Floor 6: GN502 .L56 2001

 

Recommended for the overview they provide:

Fish, Jefferson M (2000), “What Anthropology can do for Psychology: Facing Physics Envy, Ethnocentrism, and a Belief in ‘Race’,” American Anthropologist 102(3): 552-563.  Available online, UCSD only.

Greenfield, Patricia (2000), “What Psychology can do for Anthropology, or Why Anthropology took Postmodernism on the Chin,” American Anthropologist 102(3): 564-576.  Available online, UCSD only.

Levy, Robert (1989), “The quest for mind in different times and different places,” in Social history and issues in human consciousness, A. Barnes and P. Stearns, eds., pp. 3-40.  Print Only: Geisel Floor 6: HN8 .S58 1989

T. Schwartz, G. White, and C. Lutz, eds.  New Directions in Psychological Anthropology (1992).  [See especially Schwartz, Theodore (1992), “Anthropology and Psychology: an unrequited relationship,” pp. 324-349 AND Stocking, George W.,  Jr.  “Polarity and plurality: Franz Boas as psychological anthropologist,” pp. 311-323]

Shore, Bradd (2000), “Human diversity and human nature: the life and times of a false dichotomy,” Being Humans, N. Roughley, ed.  pp. 81-103

Shweder, Richard (1979-80), “Rethinking culture and personality theory,” Parts I, II, III, Ethos 7: 255-278; 7: 279-311; 8:60-94.  Available online, UCSD only.

Spiro,  Melford E (1961), “An Overview and Suggested Reorientation,” in Psychological Anthropology: approaches to Culture and Personality, F. Hsu, ed.,  pp. 459-492. Print: Geisel Floor 6: GN270 .H75  Available online, open access through the Internet Archive.

Spiro, Melford E (1996), “Postmodernist anthropology, subjectivity, and science: a modernist critique,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 38(4): 759-780.  Available online, UCSD only.

Spiro, Melford E. (1984), “Some reflections on cultural determinism and relativism with special reference to emotion and reason,” in Culture theory: essays on mind, self, and emotion, R. Shweder and R. LeVine (eds.),pp. 323-346

Spiro, Melford E. (1986), “Cultural relativism and the future of anthropology,” Cultural Anthropology, 1(3): 259-286.  Available online, UCSD only.

Spiro, Melford E. (1990), “On the strange and the familiar in recent anthropological thought,” in Cultural Psychology: essays on comparative human development, J. Stigler, R. Shweder, and G. Herdt, eds., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 47-61

 

More history and context:

Barnouw, Victor (1985), Culture and Personality, 4th ed.

Bock, Philip (1999), Rethinking Psychological Anthropology: continuity and change in the study of human action, 2nd ed.

Bock, Philip, ed. (1994), Psychological Anthropology

Bourguignon, Erika (1979), Psychological Anthropology: an introduction to human nature and cultural differences

Cohen, Anthony P. 1994  Self Consciousness: An Alternative Anthropology of Identity

Cole, Michael & Sylvia Scribner (1974), Culture and Thought: a psychological introduction

Hsu, Francis, ed. (1961), Psychological Anthropology: approaches to Culture and Personality. Print: Geisel Floor6: GN270 .H75.  Available Online, Open Access through the Internet Archive.

Jordan, David K. & Marc J. Swartz, eds. (1990), Personality and the cultural construction of society: papers in honor of Melford E. Spiro.

Shweder, Richard & Robert LeVine, eds. (1984), Culture Theory: essays on mind, self, and emotion  [still very useful, with seminal articles; highly recommended]

Spindler, George, ed. (1978), The Making of Psychological Anthropology.  Online and also available in Print: Geisel Floor 6: GN 502.M34

Suárez-Orozco, Marcelo; George Spindler, & Louise Spindler, eds. (1994), The Making of Psychological Anthropology II.  Print only: Geisel Floor6: GN502 .M34 1994