Books in the Anthropology of Well-Being: Individual, Community, Society series

Intimate Partner Violence and Advocate Response: Redefining Love in Western Belize offers new insight into the cross-cultural analysis of gender-based intimate partner violence by blending activist anthropology with in-depth ethnographic research to evaluate and help ameliorate the crisis in Belize. Drawing from twenty months of fieldwork in the Belizean Cayo District conducted between 2002 and 2013, Melissa A. Beske investigates the prevalence and complexity of partner abuse, the contributing cultural and structural factors, and the advocate dynamics across local, national, and transnational frameworks in combating the problem. Combining enlivened narratives, comparative viewpoints, and scholar-activism, this book not only illustrates the lived suffering of partner abuse in Cayo, but it also engages with the passionate commitment of survivors and supporters as they endeavor to create a more equitable and peaceful community. In doing so, it demonstrates an effective strategy for the interdisciplinary assessment of gender-based abuse, which satisfies demands for theoretical impartiality while simultaneously enabling researchers to take an ethical stand in social causes.

Contemporary Conversations on Immigration in the United States: The View from Prince George's County, Maryland contextualizes the narratives of international migrants arriving to Prince George's County, Maryland from 1968 to 2009. The life course trajectories of seventy individuals and their networks, organized chronologically to include life in the country of origin, the journey, and settlement in the county, frame migration as social issue rather than social problem. Having internalized the American dream, immigrants toil to achieve upward social mobility while constructing an immigrant space that nurtures well-being. This book demonstrates that an immigrant's experience is grounded in personal, social, economic, and political spheres of influence, and reflects the complexity of migrants' stories to help demystify homogenous categorization.

Clementine K. Fujimura and Simone Nommensen discuss the ethical treatment of animals and provide an overview of current and past uses of animals to enhance human well-being in Germany, the United States, Japan, and Russia.

In Love in the Time of Ethnography, the contributors argue that research is an affective process as well as a cognitive one. The authors explore love-variously defined-as an important facet of human experience, as a way of knowing and as an ethical rationale for ethnography.

Elizabeth Williams draws on the perspectives of womanist theology and anthropology to examine how Black, American women use faith to achieve well-being after a breast cancer diagnosis. Williams portrays how these women have constructed a cultural theology of breast cancer that draws on their experiences and worldviews.

Three Fruits: Nepali Ayurvedic Doctors on Health, Nature, and Social Change focuses on Ayurvedic doctors during a period of social and political change in Nepal. Using doctors' narratives this study describes the unique human-nature relationship found in Ayurvedic practice and highlights Ayurveda's relevance in Nepal and the world.

Well-Being as a Multidimensional Concept contributes to our understanding of the ways that culture and community influence concepts of wellness, the experience of well-being, and health outcomes. This book includes both theoretical conceptualizations and practice-based explorations.

In Competing Orders of Medical Care in Ethiopia, Pino Schirippa illustrates the complexity of pharmaceuticals and remedies in Ethiopia. Schirripa details how these cures are produced and distributed and how their proliferation is influenced by local politics, financial resources, social relations, and neoliberal beliefs.

In American Lovers, Victor de Munck draws on evolutionary, cognitive, and social theories to present a cultural model of romantic love. de Munck draws on interviews with gay, straight, and polyamorous individuals to provide insight into the core components and intricate variability of contemporary love.

In Being Ethical among Vezo People, Frank Muttenzer analyzes environmental change in reef ecosystems of southwest Madagascar and the impacts of globalized fishery markets on Vezo people's material well-being. Muttenzer describes fishers' perceptions of the physical environment in the context of changing livelihood and ritual practices.

Tourism and Maternal Health examines prenatal health in the Monteverde Zone of Costa Rica in the context of a tourism-driven nutrition transition. Allison R. Cantor highlights the essential role of practice-oriented research in the complex relationship between global policy and community health.

In Everyday Food Practices, Tarunna Sebastian examines the everyday food journeys of people in diverse metropolitan communities. Sebastian investigates how food knowledge and education inform food choices and are influenced by the media, social and familial interaction, globalised food retailers, and alternative food networks.

In Boundaries of Care, Ryan I. Logan details the lived experience of community health workers (CHWs) a present yet often invisible facet of the healthcare workforce. These workers participate in nonclinical services to enhance the health and well-being of their communities outside the walls of the clinic and social service agencies. Logan examines the boundaries of and barriers to care present in the experiences of CHWs, their relationships with clients, issues of professionalization, impacts of burnout and self-care, and the critical impacts of CHW advocacy. Told through first-hand accounts and interwoven with theory, Logan presents the key challenges facing this workforce and their potential to foster even greater well-being within their communities. The findings and recommendations from participants found within Boundaries of Care can inform and shape CHW programs both in the United States and abroad.

In No Perfect Birth: Trauma and Obstetric Care in the Rural United States, Kristin Haltinner examines the institutional and ideological forces that cause harm to women in childbirth in the rural United States. Interweaving the poignant and tragic stories of mothers with existing research on obstetric care and social theories, Haltinner points to how a medical staff's lack of time, a mother's need to navigate and traverse complex spaces, and a practitioner's reliance on well-trodden obstetric routines cause unnecessary and lasting harm for women in childbirth. Additionally, Haltinner offers suggestions towards improving current practices, incorporating case models from other countries as well as mothers' embodied knowledge.