Medical Identities

<p> Illness and misfortune more broadly are ubiquitous; thus healing roles or professions are also universal. Ironically however little attention has been paid to those who heal or promote wellbeing. These come in many different guises: in some societies healing is highly professional and specialized; in some cases it is more preventative in others more interventionist. Based on rich and wide-ranging ethnographic data and especially written for this volume these essays look at how a great variety of health providers are perceived - from traditional healers to physicians from diviners to nursing home providers. Conversely the authors also ask how healers or those concerned with wider matters of well being view themselves and to what degree social attitudes differ in regard to who these people are as well as their power prestige and activities. As these essays demonstrate class gender sexuality ethnicity or state policy may all play formative roles in shaping the definition of health and wellbeing how they are delivered and the character and prestige of those who provide for our health and welfare in society.</p>