ABSTRACT
This chapter sets out a model of illness based on the practical circumstances of everyday social life. Illness is depicted as a failure of rationality in particular kinds of settings ordered by particular kinds of cultural theories. The conceptual points made in this chapter are subsequently developed and illustrated by a re-analysis of various ethnographic accounts of illness and by a discussion of various methodological proposals that might bear on the themes elaborated. Illness is the outcome of human classificatory activity. It is moreover a deeply moral activity, since health is identified as desirable and illness as undesirable. 'Illness' and 'disease' are evaluative terms applied by man to natural circumstances that precipitate the death of a limited number of species: man himself, certain selected livestock and plant varieties grown for his use or pleasure. The morality in which health and illness are contained is defended, like other aspects of public morality, by a variety of control agencies.
