ABSTRACT
How people in Latin America and the Caribbean understand and grapple with health and illness is the focus of this chapter. The major concepts in medical anthropology, including the distinction between bio-and ethnomedicine, are first reviewed. Attention then turns to various indicators that underscore the region’s poor health. The following section focuses on three examples of folk or popular illnesses, emphasizing how illness is often interpreted as an expression of dysfunctional social relationships. The anthropology of the body and how healthy bodies are culturally construed is then discussed. Attention then shifts to the relationship between religion, the diagnosis of illness, and healing practices, followed by a review of long-standing controversies surrounding health and the consumption of marijuana and coca. The last section brings readers back to the United States by focusing on the contemporary prevalence of susto and mal de ojo illnesses among migrant farm workers in Florida.
