Faced with a world that is environmentally out of balance, that is unhealthy in many respects, and that reflects stark inequalities, anthropologists are challenging themselves and others to engage in recovery, renewal, and reclaiming. This volume of Southern Anthropological Society Proceedings seeks to grapple with these challenges head-on. The essays provide wide-ranging discussions of concrete problems, often with a focus on the Appalachian region. Among the important issues raised are the following: the effect of landscape on health in Huntington, West Virginia; food justice; drug use and its misrepresentation in Appalachia; the relationship between evangelical religion and depression; the changing definitions of mental illness over time and how those definitions are used as instruments of social control; how the spiritual practices of Eastern Band Cherokees are connected to medical care; and the challenges recent Haitian immigrants face in obtaining health care in a new culture. While solutions to these problems are complex and always have their roots in local circumstance, the essays in Recovery, Renewal, Reclaiming will inspire strategies that will clear blighted environments, deliver nourishing food, ease the lives of marginalized people, and lead to respect for all beliefs as we work together to bring balance to our environmental, physical, and spiritual health.
