Kuru Sorcery: Disease and Danger in the New Guinea Highlands
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Book Overview
Kuru, a fatal neurological disease thought to be transmitted through cannibalism, is examined in the Fore, a New Guinea people afflicted with the disease, who believe it to be caused by sorcery. The author also discusses Fore beliefs about diagnosis and prevention of other diseases.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0874843626
ISBN13:9780874843620
Release Date:October 1978
Publisher:McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Langua
Length:174 Pages
Weight:0.60 lbs.
Dimensions:0.5" x 6.1" x 8.5"
Customer Reviews
2 ratings
Excellent Ethnography, but Needing an Update
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 17 years ago
I have used *Kuru Sorcery* for several university courses. It's a great book for its time (1978), but so much has been learned about *kuru* (a spongiform encephalopathy related to Mad Cow Disease) since this book was published. Anyone who reads or uses this book (which is a first-rate ethnography, as far as it goes) must add his or her own "appendix" or "final chapter." I recommend this book, with the understanding that the prospective reader will need to complete the amazing picture that Lindenbaum painted as best she could at the time of her writing it.
This is by the woman that SOLVED an epidemic!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 19 years ago
Shirley Lindenbaum is the anthropologist who discovered the key to kuru. And this book is a marvelous, brief, readable introduction to medical anthropology. I use it every single semester for every class I teach.
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