Meador et al,

Thanks for your attention to this issue.  Just to clarify, I can eliminate the compile errors by prepending 

#include "Python.h"

to any source file with 

#include<boost/python.hpp>

Also, my code compiles in Linux, with and without the Python.h header:

$ uname -a
Linux nxx.xx.com 2.6.18-128.1.14.el5 #1 SMP Wed Jun 17 06:38:05 EDT 2009 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

with the same flags as before:

cd $(BOOST); ./bootstrap.sh --prefix=$(CURDIR)/$(BOOST) --with-python-root=$(CURDIR)/$(PYTHON_DIR) --with-python-version=2.7 --with-libraries=mpi

cd $(PYTHON_SRCDIR) ; ./configure --enable-shared --prefix=$(CURDIR)/$(PYTHON_DIR)
cd $(PYTHON_SRCDIR) ; make -j $(NUMPROC) && make install

Thanks again,
Nasos