Medical anthropologists have sought to understand and critique the similarities and differences between the social and cultural authority held by folk healing and biomedical practices. The understanding and critique come from the desire to learn more about relationships between a sick person and a healer/doctor. This relationship is a crucial piece in analyzing how social authority, which “involves the control of action through giving of commands” (Joralemon 2010:69), and cultural authority, which “entails the construction of reality through definitions of fact and value” (Joralemon 2010:69) are formed, used and sustained within a medical community. In both folk healing and biomedical practices, as Joralemon states, “the ability to cure would support a healer’s claims to superiority over others and could be used to promote professionalization” (2010:70). He says that when a doctor or healer is correct in their diagnosis and the patient gets better, doctors and healers gain more power and prestige within the community, which leads to a greater authority. The job of a medical anthropologist is to observe and analyze how these relationships function within different medical/healing practices around the world in different communities. When medical anthropologists examine folk healing practices, they observe how the healing practices used by the healer demonstrate their social and cultural authority, and they often question the authority because there is no method to quantify the results of the success or failure of the healing practice in the traditional scientific ways that biomedicine has. It is also difficult to quantify because the practices themselves vary within different cultural contexts of the community and each has their ... ... middle of paper ... ...by the budgets for public health measures that establish sanitation systems or distributing chlorine tablets for water. Both the folk healing and biomedical practices strive to help heal patients, improve lives and end suffering. Each practice has developed and utilizes its own traditions and specific methods to serve its community. They are strongly similar as they both rely on the authority of the healer/doctor to heal patients. However, they do differ widely in procedure and in developing social and cultural authority. In studying and analyzing the differences, medical anthropologists are able to develop preventative systems and identify solutions to epidemic outbreaks that best fit within the cultural context of different communities. Programs and resources that are complementary to the traditions and cultures of communities served have proven more effective.
This book addresses one of the common characteristics, and challenges, of health care today: the need to achieve a working knowledge of as many cultures as possible in health care. The Hmong population of Merced, California addresses the collision between Western medicine and holistic healing traditions of the Hmong immigrants, which plays out a common dilemma in western medical centers: the need to integrate modern western medicinal remedies with aspects of cultural that are good for the well-being of the patient, and the belief of the patient’s ability to recuperate. What we see is a clash, or lack of integration in the example of the story thereof. Lia, a Hmong child with a rare form of epilepsy, must enter the western hospital instead of the Laotian forest. In the forest she would seek out herbs to remedy the problems that beset her, but in the west she is forced to enter the western medical hospital without access to those remedies, which provided not only physical but spiritual comfort to those members of the Hmong culture. The herbs that are supposed to fix her spirit in the forest are not available in the western hospital. The Merced County hospital system clashes with Hmong animist traditions.
pp. 41-84. Pine Forge Press, Thousand Oaks, Calif. Pigg, Stacy Leigh. (1997) "Found in Most Traditional Societies: Traditional Medical Practitioners between Culture and Development.”
The family chose to do the healing ceremony at the temple instead of going ahead with the recommended surgery. People might choose or prefer to adhere to healing traditions of their communities and country of origin. Coordinating care with traditional healers and family members increase compliance and consent
From a western perspective, children and the elderly are the most vulnerable population and need to be given extra attention and precautions. I shadowed a pharmacist working at a children’s hospital and observed the level of care given to the patients. Fadiman evidently wants the reader to understand how cultural differences can become a barrier in providing medical care. Bruce Thowpaou Bliatout, a Hmong medical administrator, provides some measures to improve Hmong healthcare, including minimizing blood drawing, allowing shamanic ceremonies in the hospital, involving family and encouraging traditional arts.
When comparing the healing philosophy that underpins healing practices of the indigenous tribes it’s evident that all cultures share similar beliefs.
Traditional healing methods were based upon traditional Aboriginal spirituality beliefs.(p18). This spiritual belief system stated that “people exist within this context as worthy creatures, but no more worthy than any other being. To live secure, healthy lives through acknowledging and respecting the spiritual as well as the physical world, because there is no difference between the two.”(p71). The whole Aboriginal culture was based around these beliefs. Everyone in the community was treated as equal with acknowledgment and respect. Therefore those who deemed to follow the cultural beliefs had no difficulty in understanding the healing practices of the people. This appreciation of equality and respect was an advantage to the Aboriginal people, especially within their healing methods.
In fact, Native American medicine men belief is firmly grounded in age-old traditions, legends and teachings. Healing and medical powers have existed since the very beginning of time according to Native American stories. Consequently they have handed down the tribe's antediluvian legends, which i...
Kleinman, Arthur M. “What Kind of Model for the Anthropology of Medical Systems?” American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 80, No. 3 (Sep, 1978), pp. 661-665.
In the US., the therapeutic group seldom has approaches to correspond with individuals of societies so drastically unique in relation to standard American society; even a great interpreter will think that it troublesome deciphering ideas between the two separate societies' reality ideas. American specialists, not at all like Hmong shamans, regularly physically touch and cut into the collections of their patients and utilize an assortment of capable medications and meds.
Ross defines and differentiates between the terms healing and curing. She recognizes the fact that healing and curing are very intertwined and it can be hard to distinguish between the two terms. There are differences between the definitions in scholarly and general settings. She references an ethnographic study of healing versus curing conducted by anthropologists Andrew Strathern and Pamela Stewart in 1999 with native groups in New Guinea. The results of the study looked at how energy used by the different types of tribal healers to either cure or heal a patient. Eastern medicine focuses on how energy interacts with the healing process in connection within the mind. Whereas Western medicine is focused on the mind and the body separately. The practice is considered a holistic approach to finding cures. According to Ross (2013), healing is more a therapeutic process targeting the whole body and specific illness including emotional, mental, and social aspects in the treatment. The act of curing is a pragmatic approach that focuses on removing the problem all together. The life experiences of a person playing into how well certain treatments will heal or cure what is ailing them. These aspects can not be defined with textbook definitions. The interaction that the healing process has with energy is a variable in the success rate. Uncontrolled emotions can have a greater impact on the inside the body than a person can realize. The exploration of energy interaction within the body can be used for greater analysis of health care systems. (21-22). Are Western healthcare facilities purposely “curing” patients just so that they return are few years later? Is Western Medicine built upon a negative feedback loop? The terminolo...
Kleinman, A. 1980. Patients and Healers in the Context of Culture: An Exploration of the Borderland between Anthropology, Medicine, and Psychiatry. University of California Press.
In the book The Spirit Catches you and you Fall Down, ethnocentrism can also be seen. Throughout the book the family and the doctors have different ideas of medicine/healing techniques are often disagreed on. It’s important for the doctor to see that biomedicine has its own intentions of saving patient through standard procedures and beliefs. Understanding those terms will shed some light on the culture of the patient, which has their own intentions, beliefs, and rules as well. Breaking down ethnocentrism to find an agreement is a good goal to accomplish in order have successful prognosis and healing. In addition, shedding the ethnocentrism will allow the doctors to see the different cultural beliefs and not judge right away. Although, some cultural remedies may not always work, it’s wrong for people to have the mindset of ethnocentrism without even considering their beliefs first.
Medicine as a Form of Social Control This critique will examine the view that medicine is a form of social control. There are many theorists that have different opinions on this view. This critique will discuss each one and their different views. We live in a society where there is a complex division of labour and where enormous varieties of specialist healing roles are recognised.
Certain religious groups reject westernized medicine, like the Amish. Yet, for the most part most religions allow their medicinal practices to work in tandem with westernized medicine. For example, First Nations people tend to have a very holistic view when it comes to their surroundings and medicine. Aboriginal traditional approaches to health and wellness include the use of sacred herbs like sage or tobacco and traditional healers/medicine (pg. 5, Singh, 2009). However, they will not reject help from professionally trained doctors and medical staff. Much like other religions, First Nations put a strong emphasis on family/community. Consensus or decision-making is fairly common for them. A practitioner or medical staff member must remember to respect ceremonial objects such as tobacco or traditional blankets, include immediate family members when making a treatment decision, and to accommodate spiritual practices. Normally, organ donation is accepted UNLESS the organ is being removed from someone who is not deceased. First Nations’ believe that their bo...
Flint, Karen E. Healing Traditions: African Medicine, Cultural Exchange, and Competition in South Africa, 1820-1948.