The contributors to this book seek to examine, through several interdisciplinary lenses, the issue of the proper place of medicine. First, a theoretical approach is undertaken by anthropologists, medical theorists, and a historian. Then a specific illness entity, couvade, is examined cross-culturally in considerable detail and analyzed from sociological and medical-theoretical points of view. Finally, a variety of case studies from multiple disciplines and settings, ranging from the West to the Third World enrich the data points from which to create a picture of the proper place of medicine.