Loustaunau and Sanchez-Bane combine their many years of association and collaboration dealing with health issues in the U.S.-Mexico border area, to bring together a series of chapters illustrating that "asi es la vida," that's life, need not indicate a fatalistic acceptance that poverty, sickness, misery, and misfortune must be taken in stride. The authors of the chapters have researched, studied, worked with, or have been borderlanders themselves.

The chapters focus on the impact of the social structure, and on the power and determination of people to change their conditions for the...

Loustaunau and Sanchez-Bane combine their many years of association and collaboration dealing with health issues in the U.S.-Mexico border area, to bring together a series of chapters illustrating that "asi es la vida," that's life, need not indicate a fatalistic acceptance that poverty, sickness, misery, and misfortune must be taken in stride. The authors of the chapters have researched, studied, worked with, or have been borderlanders themselves.

The chapters focus on the impact of the social structure, and on the power and determination of people to change their conditions for the...

Notable anthropologist George Foster defined the first edition as "a very readable introductory text dealing with the sociocultural aspects of health," adding: " T]he authors do a commendable job... . I have profited from reading "The Cultural Context of Health, Illness, and Medicine."" With engaging examples, minimal jargon, and updated scholarship, the second edition of "The Cultural Context of Health, Illness, and Medicine" offers a comprehensive guide to the practice of culturally sensitive health care. Readers will see America's biomedically dominated health care system in a new light...