Ph.D., University of Missouri, Columbia
Professor
Cultural Anthropology
Interests and Current Research
I am a medical and ecological anthropologist. My research (and much of my teaching) concerns:
- Cultural shaping of health and medicine (risks and treatment)
- Cultural influence on individuals’ contact with plants and animals
- Effects of human-plant or human-animal interactions on health and medicine
I concentrate on ethnomedicine and ethnobiology—usually at the family (non-specialist or popular) level, from orientations of human ecology, cognitive linguistics, behavioral ecology and one health. Slight shifts in my relative allocation of these perspectives result in my sociocultural research falling within various fields, e.g., public health, mind-body well-being, ethnobotany, ethnozoology, ethnopharmacology and global health. I take an empirical approach to ethnography by using quantitative and qualitative data together to describe medical and ethnobiological systems.
I’ve had a life-long geographic interest in Latin America although I have enjoyed fieldwork in North, South and Central Americas, the Caribbean, and East Africa. I also conduct cross-cultural research in topics related to my fieldwork-based research.
My latest line of inquiry takes a one health, ethnobiological perspective in two East African multi-site projects. In Ethiopia, I (in a US-Ethiopian anthropological team) investigated Sidama traditional enset-cattle-human interdependence; new farming shifts (responses to changing climate, land ownership and food security); and, psychological corollaries of subsistence change.
In northern Tanzania, I worked on a project studying livestock medication, human-animal interaction, and antibiotic/antimicrobial resistance with Maasai, Warusha and Chagga pastoral and agro-pastoral ethnic groups. We found that ethnicity, “sectors of veterinary care” (professional, popular, and folk sectors), and livelihood strategies are strongly associated with antibiotic use, and human exposure to antibiotics. Preliminary results for antibiotic resistance in E. coli in northern Tanzania indicate that ethnicity and associated milk handling behaviors correlate with prevalence of resistance in humans. We also studied medicinal plants and ethnomedical views.
I have been involved with numerous aspects of anthropological research in a community in Dominica, including general medical ethnography, ethnobiology (especially medical ethnobotany), ethnomedicine, ethnopharmacology, child health, breastfeeding, growth, and mental health (these topics overlap on the ground).
Courses
- ANTH 101 Introduction to Anthropology
- ANTH 203 Global Cultural Diversity
- ANTH 268 Sex, Evolution and Human Nature
- ANTH 405 Medical Anthropology
- ANTH 554 Anthropological Field Methods Seminar
- HONORS 370 Global Issues in Social Science
Representative Publications:
For a complete list and downloads see my ResearchGate page.
Books
- Quinlan, Marsha and Dana Lepofsky, Eds. (2013) Explorations in Ethnobiology: The Legacy of Amadeo Rea. Contributions in Ethnobiology Series. Denton, TX: The Society of Ethnobiology
- Quinlan, Marsha B. (2004) From the Bush: The Front Line of Health Care in a Caribbean Village. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage.
Articles
- Snively-Martinez, A., Quinlan, M.B. 2024. Constraints on Family Poultry systems in Guatemala. In Transformations of Global Food Systems for Climate Change Resilience: Addressing Food Security, Nutrition, and Health, P. Gadhoke, B.P. Brenton, and S. Katz, eds. CRC/Routledge, Boca Raton, FL, pp. 133-148.
- Quinlan, M.B. 2022. Ethnomedicines: Traditions of Medical Knowledge. In A Companion to Medical Anthropology, 2nd Edition. P. Erickson, M. Singer, C. Abadía-Barrero, eds. Blackwell/Wiley, Malden, MA, pp. 316-341.
- Thiel, A.M. and Quinlan, M.B. 2022. Homegarden Variation and Medicinal Plant Sharing among the Q’eqchi’ Maya of Guatemala. Economic Botany 76 (1): 16–33.
- Subbiah, M; Caudell, MA; Mair, C; Davis, MA; Matthews, L; Quinlan, RJ; Quinlan, MB; Lyimo, B; Buza, J; and DR Call. 2020. Antimicrobial-resistant Enteric Bacteria Are Widely Distributed amongst People, Animals and the Environment in Northern Tanzania. Nature Communications 11:228.
- Roulette, CJ; Njaub,EFA; Quinlan, MB; Quinlan, RJ; and Call, DR. (2018) Medicinal foods and beverages among Maasai agro-pastoralists in northern Tanzania. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 216: 191–202
- Quinlan, Marsha B. (2018) The Freelisting Method. In Handbook of Research Methods in Health Social Sciences, P. Liamputtong, ed. Springer Nature, Singapore. DOI:10.1007/978-981-10-2779-6_12-1
- Quinlan, RJ, Dira, SJ, Caudell, M., Quinlan, MB (2017) Culture and Psychological Responses to Environmental Shocks: Cultural Ecology of Sidama Impulsivity and Niche Construction in SW Ethiopia. Current Anthropology 57(5): 632-52.
- Caudell, MA; Quinlan, MB; Quinlan, RJ; and Call, DR. (2017) Medical Pluralism and Livestock Health: Ethnomedical and Biomedical Veterinary Knowledge among East African Agropastoralists. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 13:7
- Quinlan, Marsha B. and Robert J Quinlan (2016) Ethnobiology in One Health. Ethnobiology Letters 7(1): 59–61.
- Quinlan, Marsha B., Robert J. Quinlan, Samuel J. Dira (2014) Sidama Agro-Pastoralism and Ethnobiological Classification of its Primary Plant, Enset (Ensete ventricosum). Ethnobiology Letters 5:116-125
- Flores, KE and Quinlan, MB (2014) Ethnomedicine of Menstruation in Rural Dominica, West Indies. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 153(3): 624–634, DOI 10.1016/j.jep.2014.03.015. Available at
Current Graduate Students
- Evelien Deelen — Cowboy/girl-equine interaction, Northwestern USA, Ph.D. 2023
- Hawi Aberra Bekele — Adolescent mental health among Las Vegas Ethiopians. MA 2025
- Emma Steimle — Indigenous plant use case study, India. MA 2026
Past Graduate Students
- Cynthiann Hecklesmiller
- Amanda Thiel
- Katherine Flores
Contact Information
- Office: College Hall 374
- 509.335.5405
- mquinlan@wsu.edu
Interests
- Society of Ethnobiology
(This link leads to an external website that is not hosted by the university. The views and content expressed are those of the faculty member or group and do not represent the official positions or policies of the university.)
- Contributions in Ethnobiology
(This link leads to an external website that is not hosted by the university. The views and content expressed are those of the faculty member or group and do not represent the official positions or policies of the university.)