Through the readings and Dr. Alejandro’s lecture, it’s clear that the theory and practice of dealing the disease is
essentially cultural. An individual’s perceptions are based on the environment
that he or she lives in or is surrounded by. It’s not difficult to
understand why different cultural backgrounds have different etiological
interpretations (disease etiologic) and disease awareness.
Many of the examples Nichter gave in his
article won’t seem strange to a Chinese person. The diagnosis and treatment of
disease based on the bodies’ internal equilibrium, the balance between hot and
cold, are common concepts in India, Thailand, China and many other Asia
countries. Even though there are many differences between Indian and Chinese
culture, if we compare them, they also have a lot of the same ideas regarding
medicine. Both use the pulse for diagnosis, value the use of herbs as drugs, and
share beliefs in the heat and coolness of foods in the daily diet. Both countries share Buddhist beliefs, and
their knowledge of medicine is inherited from their culture. This may explain
why there are so many similarities in their medical behaviors. In contrast, in
the Western biomedical cultural system, the diagnosis of disease is highly
dependent on medical instruments, and often appears as bacterial infection,
inflammation, or tumor, etc. People have no doubt that the treatment of the
above should accordingly be anti-bactericidal, anti-inflammatory or surgical
methods. To an Indian or Chinese doctor, all of these techniques are effective
to treat symptom of problems, but fail to look for the underlying cause of the
problem. Therefore, this different kind of disease awareness will lead to
different treatments.
Susan Scrimshaw mentioned in her article
“Culture, Behavior, and Health” that because an individual’s perceptions are
shaped by the culture, disease in one culture might not be seen as a disease in
another culture. Obesity is an example of this. Fat is not often
seen as a manifestation of beauty and health, and we see it as pathologically
ugly. But fat is a mark of beauty in some Africa countries. “In a rite of
passage, some Nigerian girls spend months gaining weight and learning customs
in a special room. ‘To be
called a ‘slim princess’ is an abuse’1.
Fat is a symbol of fertility and wealth. One’s behavior may be seen as normal
in one cultural background, but may be regarded as very unusual behavior in
another. This is often found in the study of cross-cultural psychiatry. I have
been told that the Indians often claim to hear the calls from deceased loved
ones. This seems to a common thing for certain tribal people. But for many
people in the world, this illusion obviously belongs as a sign of mental
illness. Auditory hallucinations may be diagnosed as schizophrenia by Western
doctors.
Because an individual’s perceptions are
shaped by the culture, “what is healthy for one man may not be healthy for
another”2; a culturally devout medical tradition may be regarded as
preposterous in another culture. A typical example is the Chinese ailment “weak
kidneys”. It is closely linked with Chinese traditional culture. For
thousands of years, Chinese people have often been told how important this is,
especially sexually. Because of this, you can see stores everywhere in
China selling a variety of "warming" tonics to treat this
issue. To a westerner, he or she may have never heard of such a disease.
Similarity, in many Western countries, the ancient Chinese practices of “cupping”
and “acupuncture” are regarded as nonsense. In the movie "Scraping",
it’s misinterpretation as an example of abuse is a great reflection of this;
one man’s consecrated therapy is another’s physical torture. How great the
difference is. For generations, Haitian dependence on voodoo rituals for
popular treatment also cannot be understood by the West. The example Nichter
sited in his article is how Thai women have different way to treat their bodies
after giving birth. Chinese nursing is also totally different. They think
giving birth can have serious consequences for their bodies, and therefore
typically confine themselves to bed for a month afterward. Even nowadays
this tradition is still popular. In the West this is completely
different. Most women soon begin to return to work after giving birth without a
long convalescing period.
Because individual’s perceptions are
shaped by culture, we can see that effective treatment practices in one culture
may be meaningless in another culture. Witch doctor treatments are an example
of a practice that is only valuable in a particular culture and will be
significantly impaired in a region which doesn’t have the same culture. Because
“perception can be shaped by information, practices in daily life, economic
concerns…”2, the “debate” about HPV vaccine in the class is a great
example of the diversity of people’s perceptions, and how it is shaped
differently by individual surrounding.
http://www.mandmx.com/tag/chinese-medicine/
Is disease just an abnormal physiological
function? Will biomedicine be able to solve every problem? “You cannot
just treat diseases, you have to treat bodies, and you cannot just treat bodies
unless you understand the lives bodies have become accustomed to living”3. In all
the examples we have seen our knowledge of disease and disease treatment is
actually a mirror of culture. Different cultures have different concepts of
disease, and therefore different healthcare behaviors. Social status, level of
education, gender, age ... even small habits can affect the scope of a
spreading epidemic. Recognizing this difference is not only good for improving
the relationship between doctors and patients in the clinical environment, but
also has a positive impact on promoting healthy decision-making practices. It
is therefore a benefit to global health.
Source
11. Ann M. Simmons, Los Angeles Times, September 30, 1998.
22. Nichter, Global Health, 2008
33. Susan Scrimshaw, “Culture, Behavior, and Health”
44. http://www.mandmx.com/tag/chinese-medicine/
This blog introduces the different methods of various cultures around the world and how they influence the medical knowledge. It discusses not only the differences in culture but the differences in interpretation of certain behaviors. I found this topic very interesting because it is a very common concept in our society. Culture is very dynamic and it differentiates groups of people. The mentioning of the different methods used to evaluate patients caught my attention because I love seeing the different uses of medicine and how they affect our views of the medical world. The image stood out to me because it was funny and it demonstrated how different cultures perceive cures to the same illness or disease. My goal after reading the blog was to tie together what I have learned and what I already knew about different cultures’ medicine and apply to what I could see in the future.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading through the blog entry, I definitely could relate to some of the concepts brought up through the examples given. It is amazing how much of our ways could be so different from others just because of how we were brought up in our cultures. Perception is key to this. I liked the example of perception of fat. It reminds me of our own society and how supermodels are still in the lead for displaying this “beautiful image” for young people. To me, it is very strange how two extremes can exist where fat is viewed as ugly and where fat is viewed as desirable. I agree with the author’s statement: “Because individual’s perceptions are shaped by culture, we can see that effective treatment practices in one culture may be meaningless in another culture” (Qin). I believe this is true and it does happen everywhere. Another thing that I do agree is the usage of the image in the blog. Not only does it present a side of humor to different cultural perceptions of medicine, it demonstrates how one can view medicine as simple of totally complex. I have seen my parents bring up all sorts of food mixed with medicine to be a cure to when I am feeling sick and because I am not used to Asian medicine, I felt that it would be ridiculous to even take the Asian medicine. The feelings we get when we see medications that do not meet our normal standards are usually weird and uncomfortable. Perhaps if different culture’s medicine is studied more often, the concept of medicine can form a tighter bond and have better connections to each other. Medicine has a universal purpose of healing. Whether it is a different method or ingredient, gaining more of an understanding of where everything is coming from can open our eyes to a broader view of the real meaning of medicine. Hopefully in the future we are able to see this kind of change and that different cultures’ medicine does not seem so exotic to us since they are meant to heal us in some way anyways.
Different groups of people have different approaches to understanding the world. As we learned in class this is due to the varying perceptions among individuals in which our surroundings and daily life alters process of in-taking information. This is why although individuals are able to have different perceptions; those in closer spatial proximity often times share more similar perceptions. These groups of people often share the same culture.
ReplyDeleteHere the author gives two examples of how cultures shape people’s perception into two completely different outlooks on the same topic. The first example is obesity. Western countries generally perceive this topic negatively. Whether it is due to western aesthetic or for obesity’s biomedical implications in which it is unhealthy to be overweight, it is not culturally acceptable to be “fat” in countries like the U.S. On the other side of the spectrum, the author shows that this is not the universal perceptive on obesity. Those in less developed countries, where food is scarce and only the wealthy have the money and resources to obtain such luxury. In this case the culture and perceptions is entirely different.
I agree with this notion of different cultures shaping different perceptions and the author did a good job using examples to show this. Through Clifford Geertz’s definition of culture, culture is semiotic. It deals with signs, symbols, and meanings behind things. For Nigeria, the symbols and meanings behind being “fat” is wealth and prosperity. Thus this culture that shapes the perception on this issue is that being overweight is not an unhealthy thing. In contrast, since the western world is more adapt to analyzing things through a biomedical lens, the symbol and meaning might be completely opposite of those in Nigeria. Being overweight is connected to heart disease, poverty (less access to healthy foods), and other negative connotations. Thus this shapes the perception of obesity as unhealthy and a disease. Ultimately, what culture does is it takes away the right and wrongs, the black and whites in viewing topics of health.
Ti