Tales Of A Shaman's Parentice Analysis

Many years ago, an epileptic Hmong girl named Lia Lee entered a permanent vegetative state due to cross-cultural misunderstanding between her parents and her doctors. An author named Anne Fadiman documented this case and tried to untangle what exactly went wrong with the situation. Two key players in her narrative were Neil Ernst and Peggy Philp, the main doctors on Lia’s case. As Fadiman describes, “Neil and Peggy liked the Hmong, too, but they did not love them… [W]henever a patient crossed the compliance line, thus sabotaging their ability to be optimally effective doctors, cultural diversity ceased being a delicious spice and became a disagreeable obstacle.” (Fadiman 265) At first glance, this statement seems to implicate Neil and Peggy as morally blameworthy for a failure to be culturally sensitive enough. However, upon further inspection of the rest of the book, it becomes clear that Neil and Peggy’s failure to be more culturally sensitive to their Hmong patients was caused by structural issues in the American biomedical system. To prove this point, this paper will first present a background to Lia’s case, then discuss possibilities for assigning blame to Neil and Peggy, then show evidence for the structural issues in American biomedicine, before finally concluding.

In addition, relying on a doctor who does not share the same beliefs as one does can become fearful. Trusting the doctor for full treatment is necessary but when from a different cultural background it can prevent them on trusting them. According to a research article, Cross- Cultural Medicine a Decade Later, clearly states “when the basic belief structure of biomedicine and another set of health beliefs differs radically, problems and frustrations almost inevitably arise” (Barker, 1992, p.249). The central purpose of the research was to show whether or not health beliefs between patient and doctor differs will they find it difficult to interpret the symptoms and treatment variations to accommodate their beliefs. However, the doctor having faith in one’s health beliefs can sometimes be beneficial for the patients because they’ll be fully understood and not misjudged as being crazy. As stated by the author, for the article Chinese Health Beliefs of Older Chinese in Canada, “the findings support the previous prescriptive knowledge about Chinese health beliefs and illustrate the intergroup socio-cultural diversity that health practitioners should acknowledge in their practice” (Lai, 2009, 38). Like the Chinese, Hmong’s too first go to their shaman for traditional treatment rather than going to the doctor; to them an illness and their healing is more of a spiritual thing that

Medicine, to the modern day world, is a way of healing the sick and helping people experience life to their full potential. It is an ingredient of a culture that allows the culture to survive through decades and centuries at a time. But what if the medicine that we know as helpful is actually harmful? When a child cuts their knee the first thing an adult would do is check the scrape and then assess the damage. After assessing the damage, the adult would normally plan a course of treatment to ensure the child would not lose a limb in the near future. After treating the child with a mixture of antibacterial wipes, bandages and ice cream, what if the child is not better, but actually worse? That is what happens when you compare the medical practices of the Hmong to the medical practices of the Americans, both cultures believe that the others will cause more damage than good in respect to healing the soul and body.

Though American Indians are enjoying an independent public health system with above $3 billion funds provided by Congress annually for delivering healthcare services to them, still figure and facts on health status of American Indians reveal that they are facing many difficulties and have to suffer from diverse type of illness and disease at a misappropriate level. Since long it was identified by medical communities that there are wide spread diseases diabetes, alcoholism, tuberculosis, suicide, unintentional injuries, and other health conditions among American Indian and they are dying of these diseases at shocking rates (American Heart Association [AHA], 2010). Through this essay I want to discuss the healthcare status of American Indians in the perspective of their culture as how it impacted and lead to develop mistrust between amongst the medical community and American Indians.

Healthcare is an ever changing entity with an ever changing population of clients. In current day 2016, the United Sates has become a melting pot of many different cultural backgrounds, which has led to changes within the system to accommodate the patient base. Unfortunately, not all changes have been able to effectively reach any and all persons from every background. We still see language and cultural barriers that have direct correlation to the inability to seek healthcare and or the ability to change cultural perspectives to ensure healthy lifestyles. Within this paper, the health of American Indian and Alaskan Native populations will be discussed along with the barriers to care and the

Carson, B., Dunbar, T., Chenhall, R. D., & Bailie, R. (2007). Social determinants of Indigenous health. Allen & Unwin.

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.

“The status of Indigenous health in contemporary Australia is a result of historic factors as well as contemporary socio-economic issues” (Hampton & Toombs, 2013, p. 1).

It is well studied by health authorities that the current health statistics of the Indigenous population today are clearly reflected on their health status, due to the impacts of the colonisation process. The relating problems associated with this have resulted in destructive families and communities. It is unquestionable that Indigenous Australians were adapted to the environment in which people lived and had control on every feature of their life during the colonisation period. According to ‘The Deplorable State of Aboriginal Ill Health, Chapter 1’ (2014), studies that show that numerous infectious diseases; such as, smallpox and the flu, were not present in the pre-invasion period. It is also shown that lifestyle diseases such as high BP, diabetes and heart diseases were not known to exist.

The Native American’s were the first known settlers in North America, ten thousand years before Columbus came to the continent. Their origins completely unclear, anthropologists believe there were three to five million Native Americans in North America in the year 1492 (Hoxie and Iverson, 1997). As early as the Revolutionary War in 1775, European settlers started taking note of the Native Americans. Unfortunately, the Native American population plunged significantly in the first decades after their first contact with Europeans. Native Americans were now unprotected and exposed to deadly diseases like smallpox, influenza, and measles which did not previously exist in their society (North American Natives, 2016).

A majority of Native American tribes have their own traditions about health and illness. These traditions are not based on todays modern sciences. Instead, they derive from the tribe’s beliefs on harmony. “Healing occurs when someone is restored to harmony and connected to universal powers.” (NLM) To what extent are native cultures entitled to ownership of native medical practices and curatives?  Should they be financially reimbursed or are they ethically entitled to refuse to share native knowledge?

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

The author’s purpose in writing this article was not to show the “Nacirema” as an example of how extreme human behavior can become, but how an outside perspective can affect your perception of an alien culture. If one were to look at the “Nacirema’s” cultural behaviors regarding physical appearance and health without any insight or knowledge of the specific beliefs or values of that culture, they might seem bizarre and even incomprehensible. By showing behaviors and “rituals” performed by this unknown tribe, Miner allowed others to see that the way studies were representing distinctive cultures was narrowminded and defective. Without the proper comprehension of the basis of any society, huge cultural misunderstandings could occur. Of

Most of the articles I read discussed how today Canadian are trying to move to a more traditionally and holistic form of medicine to reduce the gaps in health between aboriginals and non aboriginals. Traditional medicines often treat the whole person; the mind, the body and the spirit. This form of treatment is lost in our medical practices today. However, most of aboriginals in Canada were very healthy due to their extensive diet. For example, eating huckleberries help to reduce schizophrenia, paranoia, and scurvies. Crab apple bark and cherry bark reduce the chance of cancer, tuberculosis, and is an anti poison. Wild rose was used to prevent or cure scurvy, colds, blood deficiencies and bruising. Evergreen huckleberry is used for bladder infections and bacterial infections. Oregon Grape can increase your red blood cell count. Willow bark was used as a painkiller and Seneca was used for constipation. The list of dietary benefiting items could go on for many pages. What I fing truly interesting was that none of the things I’ve listed are used today in our medical practices. In our modern society if we have a headache we will take an Advil rather than using willow bark. I wonder which is less harmful for our body. I believe it would be less harmful to the environment and our bodies if we went back to Indigenous traditional methods of doing things. The indigenous knowledge and

Since the existence of humanity began, people have been hungry for power. With the dawn of colonization, western culture, ways of thinking, and belief system have become standard in most parts of the world. The western colonizers have always felt their belief systems and science were superior to others. This feeling of superiority has influenced the remaining indigenous people greatly.