Cross-Cultural Autism Studies, Neurodiversity, and Conceptualizations of Autism

This special issue of Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry presents six papers along the theme of ‘‘Conceptualizing Autism around the Globe.’’ This collective has several important precursors, including a special issue in Ethos (Solomon and Bagatell 2010) and another in BioSocieties (Eyal et al. 2014), as well as Davidson and Orsini’s (2013) Worlds of Autism. Indeed, a self-conscious anthropology of autism is emerging. In a book review, a year ago (Cascio 2014), I identify the following characteristics of this emergent field: ‘‘(1) A holistic view that considers the place of autism in the larger sociocultural context. (2) Attention to the local and historical particularity of the concept of autism. (3) Attention to the lived experience of people with autism and those close to them’’ (Cascio 2014:307). Previous reviews have identified similar characteristics and themes in the social study of autism. Solomon’s (2010) review of autism and the anthropology of the senses identifies three major contributions of anthropology to the study of autism