We cannot deny that what Marcus calls a “strong wave of critical thought” (2005, p. 679) ran through the humanities and then into anthropology in the 1980s. We cannot ignore how so many recent developments in medical anthropology have been built upon ideas from without the anthropological field. Whether medical anthropology can claim future kudos as a key theory generator rather than a mere recipient remains to be seen. But it does seem that much of today’s theory-relevant activity in anthropology is indeed enacted by, and channeled to the parent discipline through, the medical anthropology subfield. The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced this trend, and it has done so in ways that suggest medical anthropology has staying power, particularly in regard to questions of privilege and deprivation, rights and responsibilities, and governance and resistance.
PERSISTENT DEBATES?
Medical anthropology is now a well-established professional arena. While debates persist, the somewhat spurious oppositions we began with (generalist–specialist, theoretical–applied, and biological–cultural) have not proven insurmountable, particularly given the big umbrella medical anthropology has turned out to provide for scholarship approaching health. It is true that the divide between university-affiliated and practicing medical anthropologists has not been so easily shaken. However, better may come as universities adjust to new political-economic realities and to related public pressures to prepare students for nonacademic employment, and as the present quality and accountability crisis faced by biomedicine and related fields is addressed.
How medical anthropology’s broad center will shift to meet these demands and challenges and what, in the bigger scheme of things, any shift may mean for the future of medical anthropology I dare not say. Neither will I predict which new tensions will emerge in coming years. I can, however, offer this summary observation: a globally cognizant subdiscipline attuned to past arguments and achievements, the aims of social justice, and the intensely interconnected systems in which humans participate will be best-equipped for a positive and productive future, because the problems we now face cannot be solved without such awareness.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Numerous individuals supported the initial project this chapter reflects, including colleagues who previously have written on medical anthropology’s history and development and early Medical Anthropology Newsletter op-ed contributors (see references). I also thank (in alphabetical if no other order) Gene Anderson, Kim Baker, Peter Brown, Carole Browner, Alan Harwood, Tom Leatherman, Robert LeVine, Ryan Mowat, Mark Nichter, Gretel Pelto, Marsha Quinlan, Sharon Stein, and Richard Thomas for specific helpful insights. Pamela Erickson and Merrill Singer provided thoughtful editorial guidance, and Mary Bicker helped with the initial literature review. For the second edition, Elizabeth Durham, Laurie Krieger, Awah Paschal Kum, Fredrik Nyman, and Sarah Walpole kindly provided additional advice.
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