In Gender and the Cycle of Life
Calling in the Soul in a Hmong Village, by Patricia V. Symonds, she explores this big idea in medical anthropology about how culture effects how
people view or use what we as American’s would see as medicine or bio medicine. Her
ethnography explores childbirth and Hmong women and “how Hmong women understand
the world, specifically how they perceive childbirth”. Something that really
caught my attention that Patricia said that linked me to this course as a whole
is how medical anthropology is so interrelated into different cultures and
societies, and which makes medical anthropology what it is. This is exemplified in this quote Patricia
said, “…my study was also motivated by purposes so much a part of anthropology
that they are taken for granted: illumination of aspects of one’s own culture
by the study of another, “different” culture; and beyond the uses of
identification or recognition, or any other use at all from the study—pursuit
of and delight in knowledge in adding to what one knows. The Hmong proved
compelling”.
Her track to begin this anthropology
study began in Rhode Island where Patricia is from. Pregnant Hmong women who
came to the clinic to deliver their child were so apprehensive about the
medical procedures. From what we as Americans would see as normal procedure
like getting your blood drawn and providing a urine sample seemed so abnormal
and scared these women. Getting a check-up by a male doctor and undressing into
hospital gowns were just some of many basic medical procedures pregnant Hmong
women protested. After observing many Hmong women Patricia ended up going to a
Hmong village to study why Hmong women have these beliefs about medical practices.
Obviously coming into a new society and
culture there is definitely going to be skepticism about medical procedures.
Anyone would. I would. You would. Any immigrant that comes to the United States
would. Patricia explores along with many other anthropologists that
there is more to this apprehension. Because of your culture, religion,
and beliefs that is what one is used to as the right way to heal or even give
birth. For example religiously and spiritually there always has to be a balance
between human and nature for the Hmong. This is why Hmong women in Rhode Island
refused to get C sections because it was going against the natural force of birth.
Giving birth to a child is the reincarnation of an ancestor, therefore by
performing a C section goes against the natural process of reincarnation and defies what they believe in. When women had miscarriages it was the belief
that the bad spirits had caused this to happen, and a shaman would have to
perform a ritual in order to better and prevent the situation from reoccurring.
Relating to this aspect of cultural
influence on medicine is the article Endangering Safe Motherhood in
Mozambique: Parental Care or Pregnancy risk, by Rachel Chapman alluding to
the same concept as Patricia’s ethnographic research. This research focuses on
women in Mozambique and their how they deal with the health and complications
of pregnancy. Unlike for the Hmong
women, Mozambique women have health care clinics available, but aren't using it
as much as they should. They “seek instead protective and curative therapies
from alternative health care providers in the informal sector who address their
experiences of reproductive vulnerability rooted in ruptured social relations
and poverty”. This again points out that
medicine is more than just bio medicine it is combined with social aspects as
well.
In both
cultures the illness of a child or a mother meant something spiritually. Specifically
for the Mozambique this was caused by “witchcraft or sorcery”, and the Hmong
women it was due to the bad spirits. This picture that I chose, for me is a
symbolizes aspects of healing or medicine. It can represent spiritual and religious healing because
shaman’s in the Hmong culture and witches in the Mozambique culture are healers
of illness or things like miscarriage. Women of both culture turns to these
spiritual healers to help their health and prevent this from happening again.
But this picture also can represents bio medicine in which is very important for
everyone especially pregnant women. From our hands we can heal anyone in the
world depending on the different global cultures it can be spiritually or with bio medicine. A Doctor’s hands are the first hands that touch a newborn baby.
Spiritual healers in both the Hmong and Mozambique use their hands to create
herbal medicine from their resources and perform rituals in problems of
pregnancy. In either case the healing process is through our hands and are both
effectively used to heal and help health conditions.
Doctors go through so much education for
years and conduct trials after trials of research on ways to heal conditions,
diseases, cancer, etc. Pediatricians have the title they do because they
provide mothers with the right information and procedures to have a healthy
pregnancy and baby. These procedures and methods are proven to work. But also
spiritually, healing and treatment works as well. I can say this because I come from a different culture, but I also was
born and live in the United States my whole life. I have seen and know that they both work interchangeably. Definitely I think that if there is access, Hmong and
Mozambique women or any pregnant women should deliver and get prenatal care
from a health professional to increase the chances of better health for the
child. But I also respect and understand that conducting a C section would go
against the Hmong culture. Or the labor that the Mozambique women have to
accomplish to provide for their family keeps them from getting checkups, are all
right reasons for women’s decisions on their health care decisions in a
pregnant women.
As we have addressed in class and in
various other blog entries that there is a connection between cultures,
background, history, and religion that play a huge role in medicine. Medicine
is not just the science that is the first pops into our heads when we think of
it. Scientific medicine is definitely the main source of healing.
-Kayee Xiong
Citations:
Symonds, Patricia V. Calling in the Soul: Gender and the Cycle of Life in a Hmong
Village. Seattle:
University of Washington, 2004. Print.
Chapman, Rachel R. "Endangering Safe
Motherhood in Mozambique: Prenatal Care as Pregnancy Risk." Social Science and Medicine (2003): 1-20. Web.
Your post was very interesting to me. It was kind of a backwards take on my post. I wrote about how naturopathic medicine in the US is looked down upon by many people as false teaching and practice. However many cultures find eastern medicine to be legitimate. In your post, you talked about how African women have a certain procedure and ritual that takes place during pregnancies. These rituals include many superstitions that feel very real to the women. Western medicine finds itself superior to eastern practices like seen by these women. Current society only believes in science, but what about faith?
ReplyDeleteBasically I agree with what you are saying in your post. You are arguing that different perspectives shape the way we go after treatment and how we respond to other people’s opinions on what our treatment should be. The women from Hmong had heard the advice from the western medical doctors to get C sections but they resisted. They did not care if the “scientific” way was safer, their own beliefs were more important. They wanted have a natural pregnancy because from their perspective it is how it should be done correctly if they wanted a proper birth. Messing with the nature could give birth to a person that should never be born in a sense. It is actually awesome that this happened it Rhode Island and the doctors did not force a C section. They let the women actually have natural births even though it greatly increased the chance of complications. Western doctors think that they know what is best but that does not mean that is what the patient is comfortable with. People want what they know. I grew up in the western world and I would listen to what ever my medical doctor told me because I would not want to risk my child being harmed. These women though have their traditions that tell them if a baby does not make it then that was what was supposed to happen. Our perspectives from where we grew up shape all of our decisions. In my article I addressed that I am interested in naturopathic medicine but my family is all opposed. My family thinks that natural medicine is bogus because they are used to westernized health care. I have Chinese friends though that are dead set in using their ancient remedies for gaining good health. Who is to say either side is wrong? Our opinions are just shaped by our environment. The Hmong women want to practice what they know and what seems normal to them. I think that is awesome that even when they come to America they do not just assimilate to western medical practice. They have a mind set of how the world works and they follow it. Western medicine may have “science” but that does not mean that everyone should follow it.
Stacie Larsen