examine key questions that arise from a cross-cultural approach to the study of depression / begins with consideration of cultural variation in dysphoric affect and the import of such variation for universalist definitions of depressive disorder / examine cross-cultural evidence on somatic components of depression and explore the concept of somatization in relation to depression and the communication of distress / review the evidence of cross-cultural variation in depressive symptomatology this anthropological perspective is presented through examination of a series of theoretical, substantive, and methodological issues / review the social and cultural contexts within which depression originates, examining the role of gender, social class, family relations, migration, political violence, and social change cross-cultural aspects of depression / the cultural construction of emotion / the ethnopsychology of emotion / culture and depressive affect / somatization and depression / gender and depression / socioeconomic status and depression / depression among refugees and immigrants / depression and family factors / depression and social change / methodological problems in cross-cultural research on depression (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)