Fresh Fruit Broken Summary

For Miner, he was writing from his years of personal observation of American homes, but often the anthropologist is not already a member of the community to be studied and must develop a rapport within a community. This relationship must be created without being deceptive and creating a negative impression so that members of the community will act naturally and not suppress their habitual or instinctive reaction to life issues (Kawulich, 2005). This method collects data not only from personal observation but also includes interviews, natural conversations, checklists, and surveys. The effective use of this method includes having a nonjudgmental attitude, being aware of culture shock tendencies, wanting to learn more about others, and practicing good listening skills (Kawulich, 2005). When the anthropologist properly explores the organized routines and ritualistic behaviors of the group, they become becomes a part of the community and reports the information about how the group is operating from a holistic understanding of the viewed events.

In her novel, Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir, Deborah A. Miranda theorizes that the underlying patronage of her father’s violent behavior arises from the original acts of violence carried out by the Spanish Catholic Church during the era of missionization in California. The structure of her novel plays an essential role in the development of her theory, and allows her to further generalize it to encompass the entire human population. “In this beautiful and devastating book, part tribal history, part lyric and intimate memoir, Deborah A. Miranda tells stories of her Ohlone Costanoan Esselen family as well as the experience of California Indians as a whole through oral histories, newspaper clippings, anthropological recordings, personal reflections, and poems.” Patching together every individual source to create the story of a culture as a whole, Miranda facilitates the task of conceptualizing how Societal Process Theory could play into the domestic violence she experiences growing up as the daughter of a California Indian.

What do we expect as a life of a Mexican migrant? The American public consistently listens to the media to these people crossing the border illegally, which is deemed as a crime. They see these people as stealing American jobs and benefiting from government programs such as welfare. Countless people think it was voluntary for them to come to the United State, therefore they deserve whatever comes their way, either health problems, racism or low paying jobs. However, what countless American people don’t realize is that the majority of Mexican migrants are forced to migrate to the United State to survive. They constantly risk their lives to cross a dangerous border in order to find the jobs that the American people don’t want to endure. In the book called Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies, the author, Seth Holmes focus on the lives of an indigenous Mexican group called the Triquis. Throughout the book, he focuses on the journey of the group from their hometown in Oaxaca to farms in California and Washington. The book also emphasizes on how racism and health problems of migrant workers have become invisible. Their health problems and their social status in the social hierarchy are blamed on themselves because they decided to come to a place where they are seen as illegal aliens. Instead of blaming the Triqui people of their sickness, health care facilities need to treat them without judgement, address what exactly their sickness is as well as its structural causes.

Throughout this ethnography about the cultural group known as the Hmong, there are several anthropological concepts that can be found due to differences in culture and lack of understanding between the Hmong and the Americans. Two concepts that are prevalent throughout are medical anthropology and ethnomedcine. For example, Lia’s mother, Foua, was restricted to specific foods because of her culture, which were criticized by the medical staff which shows the dissonance between American and Hmong culture. This is a perfect example of ethnomedicine, in that the medical staff at Merced Community Medical Center expressed a completely different way of administering medicine with vastly different medications than that of the Hmong. This idea of ethnomedicine is explained later on and is constantly seen throughout the novel.

The book Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States illustrates the fieldwork of the author Seth M. Holmes by explaining the myriad aspects of migrant workers’ lives in the U.S.—from the politics to the social environments to the physical body. By not only studying, but living, the lives of these migrant workers, Holmes brings the reader a view unseen by the vast majority and provides the opportunity for greater understanding through the intense details of his work. The voices of vastly different characters—real people—are captured and expounded on without judgment but with deep consideration for all factors that contribute to each person’s life, opinions, and knowledge. Ultimately, a picture of intersectionality is painted in the colors of migrants, mothers, fathers, children, doctors, soldiers, executives, the poor, the rich, and more.

In this essay the writer will discuss the colonisation of Australia, and the effects that dispossession had on indigenous communities. It will define health, comparing the difference between indigenous and non- indigenous health. It will point out the benefits and criticism of the Biomedical and sociological models of health, and state why it is important in healthcare to be culturally competent with Transcultural theory. The case study of Rodney will be analyzed to distinguish which models of health were applied to Rodney’s care, and if transcultural theory was present when health care workers were dealing with Rodney’s treatment plan.

This historiography will cover published works that deal with the topic, the history of medicine in the United States-Mexico borderlands. There are three sections that will analyze the history of medicine in the borderlands in different capacities. The three sections are Transnational Medical Borderlands Histories, Public Health and The Indigenous Agent, and ‘Traditional’ Medicine in the Borderlands. These three sections all use distinct and unique sources that may seem untraditional for historians, but help tells a unique version of the story from different academic perspectives. This historiography includes historians and historical sources along with medical journals, an anthropologist and a sociologist to give a multidisciplinary approach

“In the Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down”, Anne Fadiman explores the subject of cross cultural misunderstanding. This she effectively portrays using Lia, a Hmong, her medical history, the misunderstandings created by obstacles of communication, the religious background, the battle with modernized medical science and cultural anachronisms. Handling an epileptic child, in a strange land in a manner very unlike the shamanistic animism they were accustomed to, generated many problems for her parents. The author dwells on the radically different cultures to highlight the necessity for medical communities to have an understanding of the immigrants when treating them.

Seth Holmes, the Author of “Fresh Fruit Broken Bodies”, is a cultural and medical anthropologist and physician. The focus of this ethnography is directly in the scope of his interests and his perspective as a physician and as a white person gives an interesting view of how he walkes through the world compared to the people he meets.

Both Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies and Pretty Modern acknowledge the term class, and the established social hierarchy and physical sufferings that comes from it, in many cultures. According to Schultz and Lavenda, class is defined as “a ranked group within a hierarchically stratified society whose membership is defined primarily in terms of wealth, occupation, or other economic criteria” (312). Ultimately, my goal is to demonstrate that while both ethnographies explore class, they do it in equally important, but different ways. Seth Holmes’ Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies is an account of the Triqui people and other Mexican migrant’s sufferings in U.S. farm labor camps. Alexander Edmonds’ Pretty Modern is an account of the booming plastic surgery market in Brazil, and the risks women take in order to modify themselves. Class is a rather fixed concept; it’s not easy to move between classes in most societies. While both ethnographies tell the tale of people trying to attain more wealth and a better occupation, the former does it in a way where class is perceived to be immovable, while the latter seems to heavily rely on the notion that you can climb the social ladder.

Health is known as a state where an individual is socially, mentally and emotionally stable without the presence of any illness, disease or infirmity (Carson, 2007). Jenny, an indigenous woman is 34 weeks pregnant, she has been complaining about her abdominal pains and after seeing the flying doctor, she was asked to fly back with him as she might be in an early labour. Jenny is concerned about her family; she wonders how they will manage without her. Her mother-in-law lives with her sister-in-law and she wonders if she will be able to come and help as her mother has a diabetic leg ulcer and needs treatment so cannot travel. This essay will discuss about the health issues before colonization and after colonization, Jenny’s

As a white man, the contrast of how Holmes is treated compared to the Triqui workers shows the mistreatment Triqui people receive on a daily basis. When Holmes and his Triqui companions were at Burger King, they expected to receive an order with four large fries but instead, only received three medium fries, showing the mistreatment they received outside of a work setting. Holmes’ stated, “They explained to me that they could never do such a thing because they would not be given different fries and would likely get in trouble for asking. Samuel told me to go up to see what they would do {....} they gave us four large fries and apologized kindly-resentfully.” (37) Because of Seth Holmes’ race as a white man, he immediately notices that the cashier treated him fairly but treated the companions as if they were inferior and that they did not deserve to receive the respect that was given towards Holmes. From that point on, Holmes realized the the vast difference between his race and the amount of power he had versus the Triqui people who had no power to control situations like this. Because of the Triqui companions’ inferiority, they feel a sense of low confidence and fear to approach people that are higher on the economic

As a result, illnesses such as tuberculosis, small pox, and measles went uncured which led to the death of many Indigenous students (The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 2012). This was illustrated in Wenjack where it is mentioned how Chanie had developed a lung infection, tuberculosis, which he had failed to receive treatment for. It is noted by Boyden (2016) that “tuberculosis and similar diseases had taken thousands of Indian children’s lives” (p. 11). The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2012) state how the high mortality rates of students caused devastation within families hoping their children would return home. As a result, they spent their lives grieving never knowing how their child died or where their body was placed. Thus, it is no surprise that the statistics demonstrate that the Aboriginal population has higher rates of premature death (Pederson et al., date). Unfortunately, neglect in Aboriginal’s health care still continues to occur to this day. In particular, Pederson et al. (date) mentions how poor economic and social conditions in the Indigenous community exist which contribute to these individuals viewing their health status as low. Additionally, the neglect in this population has resulted in a reduction in their social determinants of health. For instance, Pederson et al. (date) recognize how physical neglect has resulted in “poverty, poor housing and substance abuse” (p. 297). As a result of being neglected, the Aboriginal population is continuing to suffer which further leads to consequences in their health. Thus, Wenjack enables the reader to acknowledge how neglect continues to play a role in harming the lives on the Aboriginal

This isolation and invisibility have been researched by Kari M. Bell in her Case Study entitled “Isolation, Invisibility and Health among Mexican Migrant Farm Workers in Southern Georgia.” Bell discovers that the isolated migrant worker has ”minimal or no access to protective factors such as family, education or an extended family network” (Bell pg. 10). These protective factors do not exist for Lupe, and he spends much of his time working. When he falls ill, like the immigrants in the study “The Impact of Invisibility on the Health of Migrant Workers in the Southeastern United States” (2012), he elects to not undergo additional tests and instead he decides to return to Mexico. This “Salmon effect” is documented in Bell’s case study (page 11). She notes that this effect may be responsible for the lower mortality rates reported in studies among migrant workers. Art imitates life in Reyes’ award-winning film, Lupe Bajo el Sol. The sad truth is that Lupe, like many farm workers is isolated and struggles to assimilate into the larger

Anthropology, as a discipline in the field of human sciences, is based on certain ethical principles to guide its practitioners through their research. This creates a stable framework on which to start any research project. Avoiding deviation, however, can be complicated. Anthropologists have a responsibility to their field,