This thesis provides an ethnographic account of the ways in which biomedicine, as a part of the modernization of healthcare, has been localized and established as the culturally dominant medical system in rural Bangladesh. I show how biomedical institutions and medical professionals are becoming entrenched as almost unquestioned authorities in the domain of healthcare through the backing of the state, government and non-government organisations, pharmaceutical companies, and the market economy. I offer an anthropological critique of biomedicine in rural Bangladesh that explains how the existing social inequalities and disparities in healthcare are intensified by the practices undertaken in biomedical health centres through the healthcare bureaucracy and local gendered politics. I employ critical and interpretative approaches in medical anthropology to examine the meaning and nature of biomedicine, addressing how biomedicine has been recognized and accommodated in the local medical system of rural Bangladesh. I have systematically analysed this through the exploration of the health seeking behaviour of a Bangladeshi rural community and the community members' experiences with local clinics and biomedical hospitals which locals frequent for healthcare. This study of villagers' healthcare practices has led me to the analysis of the local healthcare bureaucracy, corruption, structural violence, commodification of health, pharmaceutical promotional strategies, gender discrimination in healthcare and population control. My findings suggest that biomedicine has already achieved cultural authority, acceptability and power at almost all levels of public and private health sectors in Bangladesh, as well as becoming the major and regular healthcare option for the local people as an element of the desire for progress, prosperity and modernity. However, in this system, bureaucracy is shaped by social capital, power relations and kin networks, and corruption is an integral part of daily care practices. This distinct version of rural Bangladeshi biomedicine contributes to medical anthropology by reinforcing that biomedicine is not homogenous in terms of its underlying philosophy and practice; rather it has numerous forms and approaches that depend upon geographic location, sociocultural settings, social hierarchy, bureaucracy, accountability, corruption, and a healthcare system characterized by medical pluralism. My multilevel ethnographic study thus contributes to medical anthropology by expanding scholarly understandings of the nature, practice and localization process of biomedicine(s) and bureaucracy in rural Bangladesh.

This book provides an ethnographic account of the ways in which biomedicine, as a part of the modernization of healthcare, has been localized and established as the culturally dominant medical system in rural Bangladesh. Dr Faruk Shah offers an anthropological critique of biomedicine in rural Bangladesh that explains how the existing social inequalities and disparities in healthcare are intensified by the practices undertaken in biomedical health centres through the healthcare bureaucracy and local gendered politics. This work of villagers’ healthcare practices leads to a fascinating analysis of the local healthcare bureaucracy, corruption, structural violence, commodification of health, pharmaceutical promotional strategies and gender discrimination in population control. Shah argues that biomedicine has already achieved cultural authority and acceptability at almost all levels of the health sector in Bangladesh. However, in this system healthcare bureaucracy is shaped by social capital, power relations and kin networks, and corruption is a central element of daily care practices.

This book provides an ethnographic account of the ways in which biomedicine, as a part of the modernization of healthcare, has been localized and established as the culturally dominant medical system in rural Bangladesh. Dr Faruk Shah offers an anthropological critique of biomedicine in rural Bangladesh that explains how the existing social inequalities and disparities in healthcare are intensified by the practices undertaken in biomedical health centres through the healthcare bureaucracy and local gendered politics. This work of villagers’ healthcare practices leads to a fascinating analysis of the local healthcare bureaucracy, corruption, structural violence, commodification of health, pharmaceutical promotional strategies and gender discrimination in population control. Shah argues that biomedicine has already achieved cultural authority and acceptability at almost all levels of the health sector in Bangladesh. However, in this system healthcare bureaucracy is shaped by social capital, power relations and kin networks, and corruption is a central element of daily care practices.

Recently, mass arsenic poisoning of groundwater has emerged as a disastrous public health concern in Bangladesh. Apart from hundreds of deaths that have already been reported, 85 million people are estimated to be at high risk of developing deadly arsenicosis symptoms. The severity and extent of arsenicosis have obliged the government of Bangladesh to declare it the "worst national disaster" the country has ever faced, and further to be deemed a "state of emergency." To fight this pervasive public health disaster, the Bangladesh government has collaborated with the international and national NGOs to implement development projects to provide arsenic-free water to rural villagers. Drawing upon ethnographic research in rural Southwestern Bangladesh, this book discusses arsenic contamination and its resultant health impact from a medical anthropological and anthropology of development perspectives. It examines how the actual patients perceive, explain, manage and respond to this catastrophic public health outbreak, and goes on to analyse how such lay perceptions shape health-seeking behaviour of subjects in a medically plural context. To make the issue more holistic, this book further examines mitigation strategies and community participation in these projects. Challenging approaches to development and development project management, the book is of interest to policy makers, practitioners and academics working in the field of development studies, South Asian studies, medical anthropology, anthropology and sociology of development.

The fully revised new edition of the defining reference work in the field of medical anthropology A Companion to Medical Anthropology, Second Edition provides the most complete account of the key issues and debates in this dynamic, rapidly growing field. Bringing together contributions by leading international authorities in medical anthropology, this comprehensive reference work presents critical assessments and interpretations of a wide range of topical themes, including global and environmental health, political violence and war, poverty, malnutrition, substance abuse, reproductive health, and infectious diseases. Throughout the text, readers explore the global, historical, and political factors that continue to influence how health and illness are experienced and understood. The second edition is fully updated to reflect current controversies and significant new developments in the anthropology of health and related fields. More than twenty new and revised articles address research areas including war and health, illicit drug abuse, climate change and health, colonialism and modern biomedicine, activist-led research, syndemics, ethnomedicines, biocommunicability, COVID-19, and many others. Highlighting the impact medical anthropologists have on global health care policy and practice, A Companion to Medical Anthropology, Second Edition: Features specially commissioned articles by medical anthropologists working in communities worldwide Discusses future trends and emerging research areas in the field Describes biocultural approaches to health and illness and research design and methods in applied medical anthropology Addresses topics including chronic diseases, rising levels of inequality, war and health, migration and health, nutritional health, self-medication, and end of life care Part of the acclaimed Wiley Blackwell Companions to Anthropology series, A Companion to Medical Anthropology, Second Edition, remains an indispensable resource for medical anthropologists, as well as an excellent textbook for courses in medical anthropology, ethnomedicine, global health care, and medical policy.

Based on empirical research in peri-urban areas in Dhaka, this thesis took the form of an anthropological enquiry into the forms of sexuality popularized by street-canvassers and their advertisement and sale of male potency medicines in Bangladesh. The field study raises as well as explores questions regarding male sexuality and sexual health problems. This study has demonstrated, using ethnographic data, one of the multiple ways in which males’ sexual health problems are being understood and practiced at the street level. Therefore, in this research, the concept of masculine sexuality and its representation in Bangladeshi society is very central. Street canvassers in Bangladesh are one of the primary contributing agents to the representation process of masculine sexuality among rural and urban males. This process is linked to the livelihoods of the canvassers who are not only so-called "traditional healers" but also promoters of "modern" bio-medical ideas. Canvassers primarily produce and sell male potency and enhancement medicines based on their specialization of the male body. This process is reciprocal: Canvassers present an image that sells, which ultimately influences the creation of an idealized estimation of masculine sexuality among the clients. This study has focused on street canvassers' medicine selling situations in order to understand their perceptions and dissemination of "ideal masculinity", and its consequences for male health. It has examined the views and narratives of the canvassers as well as the responses of their clients.

Eloquence in Trouble captures the articulation of several troubled lives in Bangladesh as well as the threats to the very genres of their expression, lament in particular. The first ethnography of one of the most spoken mother tongues on earth, Bangla, this study represents a new approach to troubles talk, combining the rigor of discourse analysis with the interpretive depth of psychological anthropology. Its careful transcriptions of Bangladeshi troubles talk will disturb some readers and move others--beyond past academic discussion of personhood in South Asia.