The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
Health is an essential issue in the life of an individual. In a healthy nation, there is a lot of progress that is made. This, therefore, examines health as an essential discipline. It is through medical anthropology that the interrelationships that affect the health of human beings, as well as other species, are covered. The way social institutions and cultural norms interrelate with health is explained in the discipline of medical Anthropology. In this essay, it is through the set of quotes appearing in the selected articles, that the matter of medical anthropology and its facets get a description.
Firstly, if you can’t see that your own culture has its own set of interests, emotions, and biases, how can you expect to deal successfully with someone else’s culture?” (p. 261) this particular quote is got from the book; The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. In this book, there is a story told of Lia, a Hmong child with a medical condition of Epilepsy ( Fadiman, 261). Ultimately, the experience reveals dangers that lack of a cross-cultural communication may impose in the field of Medicine as per (Mucha, 2020, Slide 31) Culture has a significant influence on our behavior and knowledge concerning health. To prevent and respond to any ailment, therefore, needs some point of culture to know-how across the divide. Substantiating this particular quote from the Fadiman book is the importance of learning other cultures as elaborated.
Secondly, there is another quote that states, [Lia’s] life were ruined not by septic shock or noncompliant parents but by cross-cultural misunderstanding.” (p. 262). It is through the study of Lia’s case that the dispute that is ongoing between Merced hospital and the refugees gets an implication that acknowledges culture and healing systems as explored in Willy and Allen’s chapter 3 ( Wiley & John, 312). The belief that the family has that epilepsy is a disease with the spiritual origin and setting Lia on a vegetative diet proves that cultural understanding is vital in the healthcare system.
Work Cited
Fadiman, Anne. The spirit catches you, and you fall down: A Hmong Child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures. Macmillan, 2012.
Mucha, K. (2020). Introduction to Medical Anthropology and Global Health.
Wiley, Andrea S., and John Scott Allen. Medical Anthropology: A biocultural approach, Oxford: Oxford 2009.University Press,