Toward an ecology of women's reproductive health

Medical ecology has been one of the dominant theoretical strands in medical anthropology since the 1960s. It has come to be identified with a rather narrow range of research issues, concerning such matters as adaptation to climate and infectious disease, and has dealt with small-scale foraging societies. An ecological model has potential for dealing broadly with other health issues, in the case explored here, women's reproductive health, a topic that has frequently been approached from either a cultural or biological standpoint rather than the integrated one advocated here.