Medical Pluralism: An Evolving and Contested Concept in Medical Anthropology

Baer, Hans A.

doi:10.1002/9781444395303.ch20

Cited by 14 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Explaining the complexity of reasons why and how patients make choices among different available systems worldwide, and discerning patterns, is a continuing challenge (Baer ). Erickson (:107), among others, concludes that “variation in both knowledge of and belief in traditional healing systems within cultural groups, … is largely based on education and acculturation level.” Thus, Sara's preference for biomedicine in treating her children's illnesses might reflect a longer residence in the United States and greater familiarity with, and belief in, the efficacy of biomedicine.…”

Section: *****mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, Hispanic communities in central Washington State, which have histories of transnational immigration for over a century, have received little attention. Also, juxtaposing biomedical and immigrant beliefs about the same illness is uncommon in the many recent studies of ethnomedical systems worldwide (Baer :419; Chavez :208). We use this approach to uncover overlaps and discordance between Hispanic immigrant families and biomedical practitioners in beliefs about illness transmission and prevention.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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For the Sake of our Children: Hispanic Immigrant and Migrant Families’ Use of Folk Healing and Biomedicine

2013

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This article documents beliefs among Hispanic immigrant and migrant families in central Washington State about the etiology, symptomology, and appropriate treatments for illnesses experienced by their young children. Similar information was gathered from health care staff at several area biomedical facilities. We integrate data from the childhood health project and the authors' previous research to refine the ethnomedical knowledge base and assumptions about the impact of migration histories and acculturative forces on Hispanic health belief systems and therapeutic decision-making. The analysis is situated in the region's political economic context, dominated by agribusiness, which reveals the enmeshed structural forces that influence the children's health care. We conclude that only when cultural and structural factors are considered in concert can these approaches most effectively contribute to understanding family responses to childhood illness at local community levels as well as at broader analytic scales, and to the development of culturally relevant and effective health care.

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Section: *****mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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For the Sake of our Children: Hispanic Immigrant and Migrant Families’ Use of Folk Healing and Biomedicine

2013

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“…Accessibility in terms of low cost and the relative high number of traditional healer is a reason why patients opt to traditional healing, rather than modern medical treatment. When this first step fails, they move to modern medical treatment, and vice versa (Raffaetà 2013;Baer 2011;Lungelow 2011;Walker 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acculturation in Javanese Traditional Medicine Practice in Yogyakarta

Triratnawati

2016

komunitas

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The rampant practice of traditional medicine in the big cities in Java can not be separated from the influence of globalization. It is advertised through flyers, pamphlets, signage, television and internet. Medical practice can not be separated from the mixture of elements of the local culture, external/ foreign as well as modern practice medical later adopted in order to enhance public interest in their treatment. The purpose of this article is to analyze the practice of acculturation in traditional medicine related to methods, tools, advertising and meaning behind the ways the adoption of other culture into the traditional practice. An integrative ethnographic study was conducted in Bantul and Sleman, Yogyakarta, on traditional healers such as gurah, bekam, metaphysical/ spiritual, herbal, traditional massage therapy, as well as hemorrhoids. Other information was obtained from interviews with the patients. Medical pluralism by wrapping traditional therapy combined with health culture from the outside attracts consumers with a dogmatic way was made by Javanese traditional healers. They advertise with testimony on local television with the aim of introducing methods, tools, disease cure rates, so the number of patients increases. Acculturation appears that more and more people believe in the business practices and their treatment.

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“…Although at the center of investigations in medical anthropology (Baer ; Beckerleg ; Crandon ; Obermeyer ), the study of pluralistic systems of treatment has not been popular in studies of oral health care. Few accounts examine the extent to which, especially among the rural poor, traditional and indigenous methods represent an alternative to professional dentists (Agbor and Naidoo ; Owens and Saeed ; Sarita and Tuominen ; Saub and Jaafar ); equally rarely explored is the connection between alternative oral health practices and contexts of economic and social marginality (Nations and Nuto ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring Pluralism in Oral Health Care: Dom Informal Dentists in Northern Lebanon

Bochi

2014

Med Anthropol Q

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This article describes a pluralistic regime of oral health provision in a rural part of northern Lebanon, where dental care came from two main sources: professionally trained dentists and "informal" Dom dentists with Syrian nationality. Relying on a combination of interviews and ethnography, I offer a multivocal view of oral health services that incorporates data from patients and formal and informal providers. I argue that informal dentistry constituted an interstitial and translocal mode of dental care. In the northern Lebanese Biqa Valley, close to the Syrian border, the local articulation of neoliberal health governance created opportunities for heterodox practices in oral health. The organization of informality was predicated on the presence of the open border between Syria and Lebanon, which favored patterns of flexible cross-border mobility. In this context, informal dentistry was not alternative, but supplementary and lateral in relation to official forms of oral health provision.

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Medical Pluralism: An Evolving and Contested Concept in Medical Anthropology

Cited by 14 publications

References 27 publications

For the Sake of our Children: Hispanic Immigrant and Migrant Families’ Use of Folk Healing and Biomedicine

For the Sake of our Children: Hispanic Immigrant and Migrant Families’ Use of Folk Healing and Biomedicine

Acculturation in Javanese Traditional Medicine Practice in Yogyakarta

Exploring Pluralism in Oral Health Care: Dom Informal Dentists in Northern Lebanon

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