American Health and Wellness in Archaeology and History

American Health and Wellness in Archaeology and History PDF Author: Dale L. Hutchinson
Publisher: University Press of Florida
ISBN: 081305799X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
In this book, Dale Hutchinson traces the history of American health care and well-being from the colonial era to the present, drawing on evidence from material culture and historical documents to offer insights into the long-standing tension between traditional and institutionalized cures, as well as the emergence of the country’s unique brand of medical consumerism. Hutchinson outlines three major trends that have influenced the course of American medicine—the convergence of different ancestral traditions, the formalization of the medical industry, and the rise of individual choice. He discusses how health challenges in the emergent nation led to increased numbers of health care specialists, and how in turn the developing prestige and lucrative nature of the medical profession caused widespread public distrust. Depicting the Civil War as a turning point in attitudes about health, Hutchinson demonstrates how sanitation and hygiene became important emphases of domestic life in the postbellum period. He also describes subsequent trends in self-care. Throughout, Hutchinson incorporates lessons learned from artifacts such as medical tools and the packaging of tonics, pills, salves, and other curatives. Looking back on this history from the perspective of the contemporary landscape of health care and wellness in the United States, Hutchinson points out that weaknesses in the system that became apparent amid the COVID-19 pandemic were the result of changes that have been unfolding since the founding of the nation.

Health and Wellness in Colonial America

Health and Wellness in Colonial America PDF Author: Rebecca Tannenbaum Ph.D.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book provides a broad introduction to medical practices among Anglo-Americans, Native Americans, and African Americans during the colonial period, covering everything from dentistry to childcare practices to witchcraft. It is ideal for college or advanced high school courses in early American history, the history of medicine, or general social history. Health and Wellness in Colonial America covers all aspects of medicine from surgery to the role of religion in healing, giving readers a comprehensive overall picture of medical practices from 1600 to 1800--a topic that speaks volumes about the living conditions during that period. In this book, an introductory chapter describes the ways in which all three cultures in colonial America--European, African, and Native American--thought about medicine. The work covers academic and scientific medicine as well as folk practices, women's role in healing, and the traditions of Native Americans and African Americans. Because of its broad scope, the book will be highly useful to advanced high school students; undergraduate students in various areas of studies, such as early American history, women's history, and history of medicine; and general readers interested in the history of medicine.

The Archaeology of Medicine and Healthcare

The Archaeology of Medicine and Healthcare PDF Author: Naomi Sykes
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000591697
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
The maintenance of human health and the mechanisms by which this is achieved – through medicine, medical intervention and care-giving – are fundamentals of human societies. However, archaeological investigations of medicine and care have tended to examine the obvious and explicit manifestations of medical treatment as discrete practices that take place within specific settings, rather than as broader indicators of medical worldviews and health beliefs. This volume highlights the importance of medical worldviews as a means of understanding healthcare and medical practice in the past. The volume brings together ten chapters, with themes ranging from a bioarchaeology of Neanderthal healthcare, to Roman air quality, decontamination strategies at Australian quarantine centres, to local resistance to colonial medical structures in South America. Within their chapters the contributors argue for greater integration between archaeology and both the medical and environmental humanities, while the Introduction presents suggestions for future engagement with emerging discourse in community and public health, environmental and planetary health, genetic and epigenetic medicine, 'exposome' studies and ecological public health, microbiome studies and historical disability studies. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of World Archaeology.

Health and Wellness in 19th-Century America

Health and Wellness in 19th-Century America PDF Author: John C. Waller
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
This book provides a comprehensive description of what being sick and receiving "medical care" was like in 19th-century America, allowing modern readers to truly appreciate the scale of the improvements in healthcare theory and practice. Health and Wellness in 19th-Century America covers a period of dramatic change in the United States by examining our changing understanding of the nature of the disease burden, the increasing size of the nation, and our conceptions of sickness and health. With topics ranging from the unsanitary tenements of New York's Five Points, the field hospitals of the Civil War, and to the laboratories of Johns Hopkins Medical School, author John C. Waller reveals a complex picture of tradition, discovery, innovation, and occasional spectacular success. This book draws upon an extensive literature to document sickness and wellness in environments like rural homesteads, urban East-coast slums, and the hastily built cities of the West. It provides a fascinating historical examination of a century in which Americans made giant strides in understanding disease yet also clung to traditional methods and ideas, charting how U.S. medical science gradually transformed from being a backwater to a world leader in the field.

Health and Wellness in Colonial America

Health and Wellness in Colonial America PDF Author: Rebecca Tannenbaum Ph.D.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313384916
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
This book provides a broad introduction to medical practices among Anglo-Americans, Native Americans, and African Americans during the colonial period, covering everything from dentistry to childcare practices to witchcraft. It is ideal for college or advanced high school courses in early American history, the history of medicine, or general social history. Health and Wellness in Colonial America covers all aspects of medicine from surgery to the role of religion in healing, giving readers a comprehensive overall picture of medical practices from 1600 to 1800—a topic that speaks volumes about the living conditions during that period. In this book, an introductory chapter describes the ways in which all three cultures in colonial America—European, African, and Native American—thought about medicine. The work covers academic and scientific medicine as well as folk practices, women's role in healing, and the traditions of Native Americans and African Americans. Because of its broad scope, the book will be highly useful to advanced high school students; undergraduate students in various areas of studies, such as early American history, women's history, and history of medicine; and general readers interested in the history of medicine.

Health and Wellness in 19th-Century America

Health and Wellness in 19th-Century America PDF Author: John Waller
Publisher: Greenwood
ISBN: 0313380449
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book provides a comprehensive description of what being sick and receiving "medical care" was like in 19th-century America, allowing modern readers to truly appreciate the scale of the improvements in healthcare theory and practice. Health and Wellness in 19th-Century America covers a period of dramatic change in the United States by examining our changing understanding of the nature of the disease burden, the increasing size of the nation, and our conceptions of sickness and health. With topics ranging from the unsanitary tenements of New York's Five Points, the field hospitals of the Civil War, and to the laboratories of Johns Hopkins Medical School, author John C. Waller reveals a complex picture of tradition, discovery, innovation, and occasional spectacular success. This book draws upon an extensive literature to document sickness and wellness in environments like rural homesteads, urban East-coast slums, and the hastily built cities of the West. It provides a fascinating historical examination of a century in which Americans made giant strides in understanding disease yet also clung to traditional methods and ideas, charting how U.S. medical science gradually transformed from being a backwater to a world leader in the field.

Bodies and Lives in Ancient America

Bodies and Lives in Ancient America PDF Author: Debra L. Martin
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317446003
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 211

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Book Description
Bodies and Lives in Ancient America offers a broad overview of what it was like to live and die throughout North America before European contact. Using a unique life history approach, the book moves from pregnancy and birth through to senescence. Drawing on biological data gathered from human remains, as well as cultural and environmental data derived from archaeological investigations, the authors provide students with a wealth of information on health and other aspects of life that leave changes on the skeletal system. Rich case studies throughout demonstrate the temporal, cultural and environmental variability across the continent prior to colonial times. The authors also examine how different groups faced a variety of challenges in their lives, including climate change and violence, and the effects this had on their health. The book concludes by considering the relevance of what ancient bones reveal for people today. Written in an engaging style, with complex paleopathology data synthesized and clearly presented, Bodies and Lives in Ancient America is an accessible introduction to the state of health across prehistoric North America.

Exploring American Healthcare through 50 Historic Treasures

Exploring American Healthcare through 50 Historic Treasures PDF Author: Tegan Kehoe
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538135477
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
Healthcare history is more than leeches and drilling holes in skulls. It is stories of scientific failures and triumphs. Exploring American Healthcare through 50 Historic Treasures presents a visual and narrative history of health and medicine in the United States, tracing paradigm shifts such as the introduction of anesthesia, the adoption of germ theory, and advances in public health. In this book, museum artifacts are windows into both famous and ordinary people’s experiences with healthcare throughout American history, from patent medicines and faith healing to laboratory science. With 50 vignette-like chapters and 50 color photographs, Exploring American Healthcare through 50 Historic Treasures showcases little-known objects that illustrate the complexities of our relationship with health, such as a bottle from the short period when the Schlitz beer company sold lager that was supposed to be high in vitamin D during the first vitamin craze. It also highlights famous moments in medicine, such as the discovery of penicillin, as illustrated by a mold-culturing pan. Each artifact tells some piece of the story of how its creators or users approached fundamental questions in health. Some of these questions are, “What causes sickness, and what causes health?” and “How much can everyone master the principles of health, and how much do laypeople need to rely on outside authorities?” Exploring American Healthcare through 50 Historic Treasures describes the days when surgeons worked on patients without anesthesia and wiped their scalpels on their coats, and the day that EMTs raced to provide help when the Twin Towers were attacked in 2001. The book discusses social and cultural influences that have shaped healthcare, providing insight relevant to today’s problems and colorful anecdotes along the way.

Ancient Foodways

Ancient Foodways PDF Author: C. Margaret Scarry
Publisher: University Press of Florida
ISBN: 0813070244
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
How archaeology can shed light on past foodways and social worlds Through various case studies, Ancient Foodways illustrates how archaeologists can use bioarchaeology, zooarchaeology, archaeobotany, architecture, and other evidence to understand how food acquisition, preparation, and consumption intersect with economics, politics, and ritual. Spanning four continents and several millennia of human history, this volume is a comprehensive and contemporary survey of how archaeological data can be used to interpret past foodways and reconstruct past social worlds.  This volume is organized around four major themes: feasting and politics; sacrifice, ritual, and ancestors; diet, landscape, and health; and integrative methods. Contributors weave together multiple threads of evidence relating to plants, animals, craft production, and human health and reconnect the material remnants with behaviors, practices, and meanings. The case studies show the varied and creative ways that multiple sources of evidence can be used to shed light on past foodways.  Ancient Foodways demonstrates how environmental and cultural factors shaped past subsistence strategies and cooking practices and reveals the role food played in shaping cultural identity and exchange networks, while also examining how food production methods can lead to environmental destruction and the detrimental role of dietary constraints on human health. 

The Archaeology of American Medicine and Healthcare

The Archaeology of American Medicine and Healthcare PDF Author: Meredith Reifschneider
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780813079257
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description