Book excerpt: This book covers the familiar themes in medical anthropology, but places them in a unique perspective. Using a "fabric" metaphor, The Social Fabric of Health weaves together relationships, bodies, feelings, narratives, idea, material support, and institutions in the human experience of health, illness, and healing. In addition to the unique "fabric" perspective the book brings to the subject of medical anthropology, it also brings another unique perspective to thissubject: Using signs-an approach commonly known as semiotics-the text formulates the nuances between the subjective realm of individual experience and the more objective, public world of symbols, codes, and laws