Overcoming Barriers : Hmong Culture

Haitians who have left their homeland will continue to practice their religious rituals and beliefs once they have settled elsewhere. This is true of Haitian-Americans living in Little Haiti. Among those who practice Voodoo, there is an attempt to cure mental health illnesses by rituals such as having a priest or priestess bathe the patient in special oils and lotions and clearing the environment of bad spirits with candles, incense and special rituals. It should be noted that rituals intended to please or appease supernatural forces that are seen as creating problems is not very consistent with Western thought and culture, but should be respected as a culturally appropriate source of comfort (Voodoo, 2013). Also, many Haitians may be reluctant to discuss mental health and addictions problems with helpers or therapists. “It is very important to be careful when pathologizing” (N. Rudes, personal communication, July 29,

In Hmong’s, they have their own traditional beliefs in which they hardly ever alter due to a different atmosphere. Some of the Hmong beliefs are they prefer traditional medicine, are culturally active, host ritual ceremonies, and are spirituality influenced. In the book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, refers to the Hmong culture and their beliefs on medicine while their baby Lia Lee, is suffering from epilepsy in which they have a hard decision. Traditional Hmong’s have their own medicinal beliefs which they obey prior to obtaining Western medicine. The gulf between Western medicine and Hmong health beliefs is an impossible abyss. Also, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down describes the life of Hmong refugees assimilating to

Living in a culture that is unfamiliar to one’s own can be both overwhelming and a challenging process regardless of what country you are from. The Western traditions, values, and social norms can be quite different than those from back home. Oftentimes, when individuals relocate from their homeland to a new and more developed nation, they carry their own background, life experiences, and traditions with them. For this reason, these factors shape how they perceive and adapt to their new surroundings. To be precise, individuals commonly experience what is known as “cultural shock”, which describes the stress, disorientation, and the feelings of confusion that arise when entering a strange or foreign culture.Therefore staying committed to ancient family traditions can be difficult, which may then turn cultural transition into an ongoing battle for many. In particular, this paper will be analyzing the film, the Split Horn, through a social anthropologist's perspective and with the help of the Holistic model of health, including alternative understanding methods to further examine what certain families go through.

     The Hmong Culture of South Asia is a very interesting ethnic group. Between 300,000 to 600,000 Hmong live in Southeast Asian countries, such as Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar. About 8 million more live in the southern provinces of China. Since the Vietnam War ended in 1975, Hmong refugees from Southeast Asia have settled in Australia, France, Canada, and the United States. The largest Hmong refugee community lives in the United States with a population of about 110,000. The U.S. Department of state has tried to spread Hmong refugees out across the country to reduce the impact on any one region. Because Hmong families tend to be large in numbers, the community grows rapidly.

The Split Horn, narrated by a young Shaman’s daughter, illustrates the journey of a Hmong Shaman; a healer and spiritual leader, Paja, and his family moving from their motherland, Laos, to Appleton, Wisconsin. Along with numerous difficulties they face trying to keep and practice their family's ancient traditions in an unfamiliar environment. His daughter, Chai Thao, gives us an insight into what the family goes through as several of her siblings completely lose correspondence with their family’s long-established customs. However, as Paja’s children embrace and grow to learn the American culture, including: computer games, TV and Christianity, his concerns and worries for his family’s integration also increases. As the leader of the group, Paja must attend to the needs of friends and family with elaborate rituals that connect the natural and spirit worlds together. With that being said, Paja Thao, spirals into depression because of both his family and because he is unable to perform his rituals and heal his people. Ultimately, towards the end of the movie, after several obstacles he had faced, with the help of one of his relatives who performed a ceremony for Paja and his wife, he is able to heal himself and continue performing his rituals on others which further helps restore his strength and reunite his family members. Therefore, the filmmaker's thesis is that families who relocate from their homeland to the Western culture experience various

In ‘The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down’, Lia, a Hmong baby girl, is born to a Hmong family living in California as refugees away from their war torn land in Laos. In Laos the Lee’s where farmers and lived in the country according to their Hmong traditions and beliefs. In California they barely understood the language, much less Western culture or medicinal practices. In Hmong tradition, illness was seen as a spiritual problem rather than a physical problem and a Shaman that practiced spiritual ceremonies and used natural remedies was sought to prevent or cure certain illnesses and/or diseases; so when Lia suffered her first seizure at the age of 3 months and was taken to Mercer

right it should be questioned. The Hmong people are a society that has created controversy

The last group within the Hmong culture to be considered as a population at risk are the families living back in Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. In particular, living conditions are very poor in Laos (Hmong 2012). In a typical village, there are many houses bundled together that are usually “small, with dirt floors, bamboo walls, and thatch roofs made from bundles of grass” (Hmong 2012). In these homes, there are not any utilities or bathrooms, the home serves as a basic place to sleep and cook. Food is not even cooked in a kitchen, “an open hearth is used for cooking” (Hmong 2012). Also there are pigs, cows, and other forms of wildlife that roam the village. There is also very limited access to health care within their villages too (Hmong 2010).

The Hmong culture comes from china and it’s a way of paying tribute to the Chinese government. For example, the lees come from the Chinese government that were settled in Laos which was in Thailand. So they are very traditional when it comes to believing in their beliefs, such as the healing process. They don’t like any type of treatment or medicine wise to cure them, they use a healer in their words a shaman which in other words they describe it as a txiv neeb describing a person with the healing spirit. A couple reasons why they look up to them healing is because they can take the bad spirit’s away and don’t need to pay for any type of consultation like you do when you’re in the hospital. To the Hmong people, quag dab peg is an honor (Fadiman 1998, pp.22). The way they also do there healing is by getting rid of the evil spirit and a special ceremony where there has to be an animal sacrificed and drums are played. No matter where they are the shaman will be there for the

I enjoyed your post. I research that in the Asian culture, family is very important to them and the elderly is highly respected in the Asian culture. Common gestures that is ok in our culture may be a sign of disrespect in theirs, for example avoid direct eye contact and even public affection is rare (Sue & Sue, 2016). I am shock, that half of Hispanics do no return to therapy, may be that person did not trust the therapist or may felt that the therapist did not understand what the person is going through or show empathy. Language barrier will be an issue for me as well, with the research, I would make sure I have an interpreter so I will make sure the client is comfortable, as well as

This concept, termed the ‘shamanistic complex,’ thus indicates that for treatment to be efficacious in a particular cultural setting it requires: the belief of the sick person, the community and the healer. This concept is linked to the placebo effect today.

“Universal Aspects of Symbolic Healing: A Theoretical Synthesis” (James Dow) outlines treatment and healing techniques among diverse cultures which Dow labels “Symbolic healing.” This article is well structured and neatly organized. While he is concise with the information there are some portions that felt lacking. He has a solid introduction; emphasizing key concepts he will be addressing (Religious healing, Shamanism, and Western Psychotherapy). Dow uses strong citations to back up his ideas and line of information. However, some concepts are intermixed for comparison. Causing the reader to get lost in specific areas of information, and prevented a clear grasp on the information.

In today’s culture, the role of shaman varies from person to person. A shaman is an individual who repeatedly works alone through a variety of techniques, reaching a blissful state where the ‘shaman’ can leave their body to visit other worlds, facilitating healing. Any religious specialist who uses supernatural power in curing can perform the role of ‘shaman’ in today’s culture. On the other hand, I asked my cousin the definition of ‘shaman’ and he said, “A doctor and a priest? Or pope?” (Ramirez 2016). Many argue that this concept is the origin of the spiritual distress of the world; it manifests itself as disease and mental health problems. The role of ‘shaman’ is to increase the consciousness of others and generate better conditions for

In the shamanic world-view, mind and body are inseparable. There is no distinction perceived between physical, psychological, spiritual an social ills. Even life an death are not seen as separate conditions. Healing in a native sense means making a person whole by restoring the health of the body, mind, spirit and community. Tribal shamanic societies believe that we are part of the universe and must be in balance with all of Mother Earth and Father Sky in gratitude to Great Spirit. The have much to teach us today.

In terms of Traditional African Healing there are two central types of Traditional African healers, the diviner (sangoma), and the herbalist (inyanga) (Edwards, 2011). Divine Healers refer to the central activity of divining the cause of a person’s misfortune or suffering. The divine healer or sangoma will work through ancestral influences and intimate relationships with the ill to identify the cause and treatment (Edwards, 2011). In relation with sangomas, izinyanga’s mainly use herbal medicines used in a ritual and symbolic context (Edwards, 2011). Traditional doctors practice psychology however their main orientation is herbal and pharmacological. A skilled inyanga will seek the guidance of an ancestral spirit before embarking to find and collect muti (Benning,