Elois Ann Berlin

Associate Professor Emerita
Co-Director, Laboratories of Ethnobiology
Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco, 1981
eaberlin@uga.edu

I am a medical anthropologist. My theoretical grounding is bio-cultural. I integrate a systems theory that defines environment in the broadest sense to incorporate the interaction the totality of biological, social, psychological, and cultural variables in the adaptive process. The primary human need in the adaptive process is for food. There is considerable ambiguity concerning the borders that we have constructed between food and medicine. It is perhaps easier to distinguish the primary intention of resource use as either alimentary or health resources. In any case, health is arguably the best representation of the nature and quality of a human environment relationships. This is true for both the health of the human population and their environment.

My interests lie in the study of human nutrition and health as dynamic adaptive processes. I teach courses that focus on the selection of biological resources as foods and medicines as well as the cultural interventions, and sometimes adjustments in genetic expression, that produce and sustain viable and health peoples.
In recent years my primary research focus has been on traditional medical beliefs and practices as integrated parts of medical systems. I have worked for the last two decades with the Highland Maya of Chiapas Mexico. In addition, I am currently planning new research on the health problems of the underserved populations of the Athens-Clarke County area. Our goal is to understand and promote sound traditional health practices.

Recent publications:

• in press "Field methods in medical ethnobiology". In John Richard Stepp (editor) Ethnobiological Field Methods. Special Issue of Field Methods
• 2005a The Maya. (with Brent Berlin) In C. Ember, and M. Ember (eds.) Encyclopedia of Medical Anthropoology. Sponsored by the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) at Yale University. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
• 2005b Diarrhea. (with Brent Berlin) In C. Ember, and M. Ember (eds.) Encyclopedia of Medical Anthropoology. Sponsored by the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) at Yale University. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
• 2005c Conocimiento indîgena popular: La flora común, herbolaria y salud en
  los Altos de Chiapas. (with Brent Berlin) In Mario González- Espinosa, Neptalí Ramírez-Marcial y Lorena Ruíz-Montoya (editors) La Diversidad Biológica de Chiapas. Capitulo 10, México, D. F., México: COCyTECH, ECOSUR y Plaza y Valdéz.
• 2004a "Prior informed consent and bioprospecting in Chiapas.(with Brent Berlin) In Mary Riley (editor), Indigenous Intellectural Propery Rights: Legal Obstacles and Innovative Solutions. Walnut Creek, California: Alta Mira Press, pp. 341-372.
• 2004b "Community autonomy and the Maya ICBG project in Chiapas, (with Brent Berlin) Mexico: How a bioprospecting project that should have succeeded failed". In Robert A. and Beverly Hackenberg (editors), The Future Lies Ahead: Applied Anthropology in Century XXI. Special issue of Human Organization Vol. 63(4):32-99.
• 2003 "NGOs and the process of prior informed consent in bioprospecting research: The Maya ICBG project in Chiapas, Mexico". (with Brent Berlin) In Marie Roué (editor), NGOs in the Governance of Biodiversity, Special issue of International Social Science Journal Vol. 179:629-638.
• Berlin, Elois Ann, (in collaboration with B. Berlin, J. Gnecco, F. Gómez Sántiz, and G. Gómez López). 2000. Manual Etnomédico de Oxchuc: Guía Básica y Herbolaria. San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, México: El Colegio de la Frontera Sur.
• Berlin, Elois Ann. 1999. General Overview of Maya Ethnomedicine. In: Cultural and Spiritual Values of Biodiversity. Posey, D.A. and G. Dutfield, eds. UNEP/Nairobi.