Abstract This paper introduces, discusses, and summarizes Shirley Lindenbaum's book on Kuru disease, "Kuru Sorcery: Disease and Danger in the New Guinea Highlands". The paper provides information on Lindenbaum's career, education, qualifications, and publications, and then discusses the impact her book on Kuru has had in the scientific arena. It also summarizes Lindenbaum's explanation of how the Kuru disease attacks humans, original medical theories regarding the origin of the disease, subsequent medical findings regarding its origin, and the effect Kuru had on the New Guinea Fore population.
From the Paper "The author of Kuru Sorcery: Disease and Danger in the New Guinea Highlands, Shirley Lindenbaum, is a cultural anthropologist and professor in the Ph.D. Program in the Department of Anthropology at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. In addition to her ground-breaking research in Papua New Guinea ? studying the prion ailment called "kuru" (explored in depth in this paper) and linking cannibalism to kuru ? Lindenbaum has conducted extensive research (and published books and scholarly articles) on cholera in Bangladesh, and on AIDS and HIV in the U.S. and elsewhere. She also has published books titled The Education of Women and the Mortality of Children in Bangladesh, and Knowledge, Power and Practice: the Anthropology of Medicine and Everyday Life, according to her bibliography in the City University of New York Web pages for faculty members."
