A Waldstein
Biographic Data
| ID | 48302 |
|---|---|
| NAME | A Waldstein |
| GIVEN NAMES | A |
| FAMILY NAME | Waldstein |
| SIGNATURE | WALDSTEIN A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Kent |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6384-5770 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 79 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Cleansing and Building in Rastafari Healing in London: Health Sovereignty for a Hostile Environment
Health sovereignty - the assertion of rights to culturally and ecologically appropriate medicines and the ability of communities to structure their own healthcare - is a biopolitical goal of the Rastafari movement. We examine how health sovereignty is enacted by Rastafari herbalists in south London and the contributions these healers make to health in the UK, particularly for migrants disenfranchised by "hostile environment" immigration policies.…
Adam Stout, Glastonbury Holy Thorn: Story of a Legend
Adam Stout, Glastonbury Holy Thorn: Story of a Legend(Glastonbury: Green and Pleasant Publishing, 2021), 156 pp., £12.99 (hbk), ISBN: 978-1916268609
God forbid! Rethinking substance use, religion, and spirituality
Spiritual hair: Dreadlocks and the bodies multiple in Rastafari
In anthropology, the body is theorized, manifested, and experienced in multiple ways that impact medical practice, social life, biopolitics, and spirituality. This article considers the role of 'dreadlocks' (matted hair) in the Rastafari spiritual body and, guided by the 'body multiple' concept, explores how the symbolic and performative nature of hair articulates with age and gender. Ethnographic data from the United Kingdom suggest the ways dre…
Deportability and spirituality in a hostile environment: An intersubjective perspective
The United Kingdom’s ‘hostile environment for immigrants’ is having distressing effects on people of African Caribbean heritage, especially those who have been threatened with deportation. While some research demonstrates a strong connection between the threat of deportation (deportability) and abjection, deportable migrants may also develop strategies (e.g. religious participation) to work around state controls. Jamaican family relations and spi…
Smoking as Communication in Rastafari: Reasonings with 'Professional' Smokers and 'Plant Teachers
In Rastafari smoking herbs (cannabis) and tobacco is central to spiritual practices, including grounding (the process of initiation into Rastafari) and reasoning (ritual discussions). This paper presents ethnographic research with Rastafari smokers in England. It shows that smoking is considered a 'professional' activity that communicates dedication to the movement, aids in learning different dialects, and facilitates experiences of communication…
Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) refers to a wide array of healing strategies and therapeutic techniques that are not part of (mainstream) biomedicine but may be used alongside or instead of it. CAM ranges from the use of acupuncture to help manage the symptoms of chronic illness (while reducing the need for prescription medications), to the employment of spiritual healers in hospitals that serve indigenous peoples, to reliance on hom…
Food, Anthropology of
The anthropology of food addresses fundamental questions about humanity. Food has been instrumental in human evolution and the development of culture and society, yet the ways people classify food and distinguish it from medicinal, poisonous, and other ingested materials varies widely. The overlap between food and mind‐altering substances reveals the crucial role that “drug‐foods” played in the development of colonialism and globalization. Consum…
Eghindi Among Sahrawi Refugees of Western Sahara
Eghindi is an illness built around a set of pathological states experienced by Sahrawi in the desert environment of Western Sahara. Its core symptoms are caused by osmotic imbalances related to salt consumption. In 1975, many Sahrawi were exiled into refugee camps, and they have since experienced radical sociocultural changes, which are reflected in changing explanatory models of eghindi. Older and conservative refugees, attached to traditional S…
Do pharmaceuticals displace local knowledge and use of medicinal plants? Estimates from a cross-sectional study in a rural indigenous community, Mexico
Popular Medicine and Self-Care in a Mexican Migrant Community: Toward an Explanation of an Epidemiological Paradox
While Hispanics are among the most economically disadvantaged groups in the United States, immigrants from Latin America have health profiles equal to or better than Americans of European descent. Research on this epidemiological paradox suggests that aspects of Hispanic culture prevent negative health outcomes associated with poverty, poor education, and barriers to professional care. However, little attention has been given to the ethnomedical …
Diaspora and Health? Traditional Medicine and Culture in a Mexican Migrant Community
As members of the Mexican diaspora acculturate/assimilate to life in the United States they gain skills that help them improve their socioeconomic status and overcome barriers to the mainstream American healthcare system. Thus, we might expect better health among more acculturated Mexicans. However, most of the research conducted during the past 20 years shows that the health of Mexicans living in the United States deteriorates as acculturation i…
Mexican migrant ethnopharmacology: Pharmacopoeia, classification of medicines and explanations of efficacy
The interface between medical anthropology and medical ethnobiology
Medical anthropology is concerned with both the causes and consequences of human sickness, and its various theoretical orientations can be grouped into four major approaches: medical ecology, critical medical anthropology, interpretative medical anthropology, and ethnomedicine. While medical anthropologists of all theoretical persuasions have examined why people get sick, the analysis and understanding of patterns of treatment has been largely co…
On Choosing a Fieldsite for Health Related Research
As anthropologists interested in applying our research to the improvement of health and quality of life, we often find ourselves in places rife with poverty, violence and environmental degradationnot to mention corruption, scandal and controversy. This can make our job not only heartbreaking, but difficult to carry out. This paper briefly addresses how the selection of a fieldsite for ethnographic research should be based on more than local healt…
Schistosoma Japonicum Infection: A Hidden Cost of China’s Three Gorges Dam
Introduction In 1919, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen proposed improving shipping conditions and developing hydroelectric power generation in section of Yangtze River. During 1930s, research on project done by Kuomintang government concluded that such improvements were indeed feasible (Yao 1992: 17). A plan for building a dam in Three Gorges area was approved in 1958. However, tremendous cost of building dam prevented from actually being constructed at that time…
Do pharmaceuticals displace local knowledge and use of medicinal plants? Estimates from a cross-sectional study in a rural indigenous community, Mexico
The interface between medical anthropology and medical ethnobiology
Medical anthropology is concerned with both the causes and consequences of human sickness, and its various theoretical orientations can be grouped into four major approaches: medical ecology, critical medical anthropology, interpretative medical anthropology, and ethnomedicine. While medical anthropologists of all theoretical persuasions have examined why people get sick, the analysis and understanding of patterns of treatment has been largely co…
Popular Medicine and Self-Care in a Mexican Migrant Community: Toward an Explanation of an Epidemiological Paradox
While Hispanics are among the most economically disadvantaged groups in the United States, immigrants from Latin America have health profiles equal to or better than Americans of European descent. Research on this epidemiological paradox suggests that aspects of Hispanic culture prevent negative health outcomes associated with poverty, poor education, and barriers to professional care. However, little attention has been given to the ethnomedical …
Diaspora and Health? Traditional Medicine and Culture in a Mexican Migrant Community
As members of the Mexican diaspora acculturate/assimilate to life in the United States they gain skills that help them improve their socioeconomic status and overcome barriers to the mainstream American healthcare system. Thus, we might expect better health among more acculturated Mexicans. However, most of the research conducted during the past 20 years shows that the health of Mexicans living in the United States deteriorates as acculturation i…
Smoking as Communication in Rastafari: Reasonings with 'Professional' Smokers and 'Plant Teachers
In Rastafari smoking herbs (cannabis) and tobacco is central to spiritual practices, including grounding (the process of initiation into Rastafari) and reasoning (ritual discussions). This paper presents ethnographic research with Rastafari smokers in England. It shows that smoking is considered a 'professional' activity that communicates dedication to the movement, aids in learning different dialects, and facilitates experiences of communication…
Spiritual hair: Dreadlocks and the bodies multiple in Rastafari
In anthropology, the body is theorized, manifested, and experienced in multiple ways that impact medical practice, social life, biopolitics, and spirituality. This article considers the role of 'dreadlocks' (matted hair) in the Rastafari spiritual body and, guided by the 'body multiple' concept, explores how the symbolic and performative nature of hair articulates with age and gender. Ethnographic data from the United Kingdom suggest the ways dre…
Eghindi Among Sahrawi Refugees of Western Sahara
Eghindi is an illness built around a set of pathological states experienced by Sahrawi in the desert environment of Western Sahara. Its core symptoms are caused by osmotic imbalances related to salt consumption. In 1975, many Sahrawi were exiled into refugee camps, and they have since experienced radical sociocultural changes, which are reflected in changing explanatory models of eghindi. Older and conservative refugees, attached to traditional S…
Schistosoma Japonicum Infection: A Hidden Cost of China’s Three Gorges Dam
Introduction In 1919, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen proposed improving shipping conditions and developing hydroelectric power generation in section of Yangtze River. During 1930s, research on project done by Kuomintang government concluded that such improvements were indeed feasible (Yao 1992: 17). A plan for building a dam in Three Gorges area was approved in 1958. However, tremendous cost of building dam prevented from actually being constructed at that time…
On Choosing a Fieldsite for Health Related Research
As anthropologists interested in applying our research to the improvement of health and quality of life, we often find ourselves in places rife with poverty, violence and environmental degradationnot to mention corruption, scandal and controversy. This can make our job not only heartbreaking, but difficult to carry out. This paper briefly addresses how the selection of a fieldsite for ethnographic research should be based on more than local healt…
Mexican migrant ethnopharmacology: Pharmacopoeia, classification of medicines and explanations of efficacy
The interface between medical anthropology and medical ethnobiology
Medical anthropology is concerned with both the causes and consequences of human sickness, and its various theoretical orientations can be grouped into four major approaches: medical ecology, critical medical anthropology, interpretative medical anthropology, and ethnomedicine. While medical anthropologists of all theoretical persuasions have examined why people get sick, the analysis and understanding of patterns of treatment has been largely co…
Diaspora and Health? Traditional Medicine and Culture in a Mexican Migrant Community
As members of the Mexican diaspora acculturate/assimilate to life in the United States they gain skills that help them improve their socioeconomic status and overcome barriers to the mainstream American healthcare system. Thus, we might expect better health among more acculturated Mexicans. However, most of the research conducted during the past 20 years shows that the health of Mexicans living in the United States deteriorates as acculturation i…
Popular Medicine and Self-Care in a Mexican Migrant Community: Toward an Explanation of an Epidemiological Paradox
While Hispanics are among the most economically disadvantaged groups in the United States, immigrants from Latin America have health profiles equal to or better than Americans of European descent. Research on this epidemiological paradox suggests that aspects of Hispanic culture prevent negative health outcomes associated with poverty, poor education, and barriers to professional care. However, little attention has been given to the ethnomedical …
Do pharmaceuticals displace local knowledge and use of medicinal plants? Estimates from a cross-sectional study in a rural indigenous community, Mexico
Eghindi Among Sahrawi Refugees of Western Sahara
Eghindi is an illness built around a set of pathological states experienced by Sahrawi in the desert environment of Western Sahara. Its core symptoms are caused by osmotic imbalances related to salt consumption. In 1975, many Sahrawi were exiled into refugee camps, and they have since experienced radical sociocultural changes, which are reflected in changing explanatory models of eghindi. Older and conservative refugees, attached to traditional S…
Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) refers to a wide array of healing strategies and therapeutic techniques that are not part of (mainstream) biomedicine but may be used alongside or instead of it. CAM ranges from the use of acupuncture to help manage the symptoms of chronic illness (while reducing the need for prescription medications), to the employment of spiritual healers in hospitals that serve indigenous peoples, to reliance on hom…
Food, Anthropology of
The anthropology of food addresses fundamental questions about humanity. Food has been instrumental in human evolution and the development of culture and society, yet the ways people classify food and distinguish it from medicinal, poisonous, and other ingested materials varies widely. The overlap between food and mind‐altering substances reveals the crucial role that “drug‐foods” played in the development of colonialism and globalization. Consum…
Smoking as Communication in Rastafari: Reasonings with 'Professional' Smokers and 'Plant Teachers
In Rastafari smoking herbs (cannabis) and tobacco is central to spiritual practices, including grounding (the process of initiation into Rastafari) and reasoning (ritual discussions). This paper presents ethnographic research with Rastafari smokers in England. It shows that smoking is considered a 'professional' activity that communicates dedication to the movement, aids in learning different dialects, and facilitates experiences of communication…
Deportability and spirituality in a hostile environment: An intersubjective perspective
The United Kingdom’s ‘hostile environment for immigrants’ is having distressing effects on people of African Caribbean heritage, especially those who have been threatened with deportation. While some research demonstrates a strong connection between the threat of deportation (deportability) and abjection, deportable migrants may also develop strategies (e.g. religious participation) to work around state controls. Jamaican family relations and spi…
God forbid! Rethinking substance use, religion, and spirituality
Spiritual hair: Dreadlocks and the bodies multiple in Rastafari
In anthropology, the body is theorized, manifested, and experienced in multiple ways that impact medical practice, social life, biopolitics, and spirituality. This article considers the role of 'dreadlocks' (matted hair) in the Rastafari spiritual body and, guided by the 'body multiple' concept, explores how the symbolic and performative nature of hair articulates with age and gender. Ethnographic data from the United Kingdom suggest the ways dre…
Adam Stout, Glastonbury Holy Thorn: Story of a Legend
Adam Stout, Glastonbury Holy Thorn: Story of a Legend(Glastonbury: Green and Pleasant Publishing, 2021), 156 pp., £12.99 (hbk), ISBN: 978-1916268609
Cleansing and Building in Rastafari Healing in London: Health Sovereignty for a Hostile Environment
Health sovereignty - the assertion of rights to culturally and ecologically appropriate medicines and the ability of communities to structure their own healthcare - is a biopolitical goal of the Rastafari movement. We examine how health sovereignty is enacted by Rastafari herbalists in south London and the contributions these healers make to health in the UK, particularly for migrants disenfranchised by "hostile environment" immigration policies.…
Sociology (11 works) · Medicine (7 works) · Political science (7 works) · Anthropology (5 works) · Gender Studies (5 works) · Alternative medicine (4 works) · Biology (4 works) · Caribbean history, culture, and politics (4 works) · Ecology (4 works) · Epistemology (4 works)