What makes us different is what makes us human..
Joseph S. Alter
Professor
Joseph Alter received his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley in 1989. He is a sociocultural anthropologist whose area of interest is South Asia.
His research is in the field of medical anthropology on topics of physical fitness, public health, social psychology, and the relationship between health, culture, and politics broadly defined.
He has recently conducted work on the symbolic meaning of the body in the practice of Indian wrestling; the relationship between sexuality, male celibacy, and nationalism in post-colonial India; and the development of scientific yoga therapy as a modern, middle-class form of public health in urban India.
jsalter@pitt.edu
Research
Health and the Body
Faculty
- Kathleen M. S. Allen
Archaeology, Iroquois, ethnoarchaeology
- Joseph S. Alter
Cultural, India, medical anthropology
- Marc Bermann
Archaeology, Andes, households
- Nicole Constable
Cultural, China, modernity
- Olivier de Montmollin
Archaeology, Maya, states
- Kathleen M. DeWalt
Cultural, Latin America, medical anthropology
- Robert D. Drennan
Archaeology, Latin America, complex societies
- Bryan K. Hanks
Archaeology, Russia, zooarchaeology
- Robert M. Hayden
Cultural, Eastern Europe, law
- Margaret Judd
Physical, Near East, paleopathology
- Terrence Kaufman
Linguistic, Mesoamerica, writing systems
- Katheryn M. Linduff
Archaeology, China, nomads
- Gabriella Lukacs
Cultural, Japan, media
- Emily McEwan-Fujita
Linguistic, Scotland, ethnolinguistic revitalization
- Mark P. Mooney
Physical, comparative anatomy
- Hugo G. Nutini
Cultural, Mesoamerica, social structure
- Leonard Plotnicov
Cultural, US, urban studies
- James B. Richardson III
Archaeology, Andes, ecology
- Harry Sanabria
Cultural, Andes, economic anthropology
- Richard Scaglion
Cultural, Pacific, conflict
- Jeffrey H. Schwartz
Physical, hominids, evolution
- Michael I. Siegel
Physical, functional anatomy, craniofacial
- Andrew J. Strathern
Cultural, Pacific, ethnography