Pandemic Perspectives
Anthropology has a crucial role for addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. In the face of biomedical uncertainty about a highly pathogenic and contagious disease, anthropology’s cross-cultural perspective on epidemics can guide responses that limit human suffering. In other words, COVID-19 is new, but human responses to epidemics are not. This issue of Open Anthropology examines anthropological perspectives on outbreaks of other infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS, cholera, Ebola virus disease (EVD), influenza, SARS, tuberculosis (TB), and Zika. We selected these articles to highlight the breadth of anthropological knowledge available for enhancing culturally informed responses for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Volume 8, Number 1
April 2020
Pandemic Perspectives: Responding to COVID-19
Michael C. Ennis-McMillan, Skidmore College
Kristin Hedges, Grand Valley State University
Sinks for the Press: Cholera and the State Performance of Power at the Dominican Border
Kyrstin Mallon Andrews
The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology. Volume 23, Issue 2:338-362 (2017)
Charles L. Briggs
American Ethnologist. Volume 32, Issue 2:164-187 (2004)
Material Proximities and Hotspots: Toward an Anthropology of Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers
Hannah Brown and Ann H. Kelly
Medical Anthropology Quarterly. Volume 28, Issue 2:280-303 (2014)
Carlo Caduff
Cultural Anthropology. Volume 27, Issue 2:333– 57 (2012)
Suffering from Water: Social Origins of Bodily Distress in a Mexican Community
Michael Ennis-McMillan
Medical Anthropology Quarterly. Volume 15, Issue 3:368-90 (2001)
Cell Phones ≠ Self and Other Problems with Big Data Detection and Containment during Epidemics
Susan L. Erikson
Medical Anthropology Quarterly. Volume 32, Issue 3:315-339 (2018)
Sending Sickness: Sorcery, Politics and Changing Concepts of AIDS in Rural Haiti
Paul Farmer
Medical Anthropology Quarterly. Volume 4, Issue 1:6-17 (1990)
AIDS and Anthropologists: Ten Years Later
Paul Farmer
Medical Anthropology Quarterly. Volume 11, Issue 4:516-525 (1997)
Wild Goose Chase: The Displacement of Influenza Research in the Fields of Poyang Lake, China
Lyle Fearnley
Cultural Anthropology. Volume 30, Issue 1:12-35 (2015)
Outliving Death: Ebola, Zombies, and the Politics of Saving Lives
Veronica Gomez‐Temesio
American Anthropologist. Volume 120, Issue 4:738-751 (2018)
The Generic Biothreat, or, How We Became Unprepared
Andrew Lakoff
Cultural Anthropology. Volume 23, Issue 3:399-428 (2008)
Viral Clouds: Becoming H5N1 in Indonesia
Celia Lowe
Cultural Anthropology. Volume 25, Issue 4:625-649 (2010)
Kyasanur Forest Disease: An Ethnography of a Disease of Development
Mark Nichter
Medical Anthropology Quarterly. Volume 1, Issue 4:406-423 (1987)
What Can Critical Medical Anthropology Contribute to Global Health?
James Pfeiffer and Mark Nichter
Medical Anthropology Quarterly. Volume 22, Issue 4:410-415 (2008)
Bird Flu Biopower: Strategies for Multispecies Coexistence in Việt Nam
Natalie Porter
American Ethnologist. Volume 40, Issue 1:132-148 (2013)
Post‐Katrina, Pre‐Pandemic America
Monica Schoch‐Spana
Anthropology News. Volume 47, Issue 1:32-36 (2008)
Syndemics and Public Health: Reconceptualizing Disease in Bio‐Social Context
Merill Singer and Scott Clair
Medical Anthropology Quarterly. Volume 17, Issue 4:423-441 (2003)
Theorizing (Vaccine) Refusal: Through the Looking Glass
Elisa J. Sobo
Cultural Anthropology. Volume 31, Volume 3:342-350 (2016)
Book Review of Zika: From the Brazilian Backlands to Global Threat, Debroah Diniz, translated by Diane Groskalus Whitty
Jeni Stolow and Arachu Castro
Medical Anthropology Quarterly. Volume 32, Issue 4 (2018)
Civet Cats, Fried Grasshoppers, and David Beckham's Pajamas: Unruly Bodies After SARS
Mei Zhan
American Anthropologist. Volume 107, Issue 1:31-42 (2005)