The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Summary

The Hmong’s believe in shamans. Shamans are religious specialists commonly found in small-scale egalitarian societies. They are believed to have the power to contact powerful cosmic beings directly on behalf of others, sometimes by traveling to the cosmic realm to communicate with them. Shamans are

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

Applying Class Concepts to “Where the Spirit Lives” Provide as many specific examples of each of the following concepts from “Where the Spirit Lives”: Framework: How the dominant group maintains power (Both Pharr and Weber’s frameworks): Institutional Power Political control: laws/policies/criminal justice system - The “Whites” lawfully took the children from their Native land - The school creating rules forbidding native practices of the Indian children Ideological control: control of ideas through education, religion, media, etc. - The ideas and practices of Christianity were completely forced on the Native American people.

What happens when two very different or even mutually exclusive cultural perspective are forced into contact with one another? In Anne Fadiman’s The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, there is a division between the shamanistic insubordinate cultural of Hmong refugees in Merced, California and the cold analytical approach of western medicine. In the early 1980s, the child of a Hmong refugee family in Merced, California is born with epilepsy, her name is Lia Lee. Anne Fadiman traces the interaction between these two cultures and Lia’s disease, she reviews that misunderstanding and miscommunication can have calamitous consequences for all involved. The author introduces many characters throughout the book and they all

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down (1997) is an ethnography written by Anne Faidman. It tells the story of Lia Lee, a Hmong girl with severe epilepsy, and her family’s journey with managing the condition and the cultural barriers that posed great challenges in Lia’s care. Lia was diagnosed with epilepsy at age 1. It was her family’s opinion that the condition was a spiritual gift. Lia’s parents, Nao Kao and Foua, were wary of the American medical system, preferring to treat Lia in the Hmong way. Under the more spiritually focused care of her parents, Lia continued to have severe seizures; at the age of 4 ½, she slipped into a coma that would last the rest of her life. This book serves as a testament to the importance of cultural competency

Merced's population was a one fifth Hmong and since MCMC offered the Medi-Cal plan which was a government funded service for people who couldn't afford health insurance, which most Hmong could not. More than eighty percent of the Hmong who obtained care were receiving free health care. The government only pays for so much, so the hospital has to pick up the rest of the bill. MCMC didn't have the money to hire interpreters, so as a makeshift they hired bilingual Hmong as lab assistants, nurse's aides, and transporters. Sometimes even these people weren't around and the Hmong children who attended English school were used as the translators. Even if the children and the makeshift workers could translate it would never be perfect for most medical English terms have no equal in Hmong, and it is awkward for children to ask such questions as "Do you want to take him of life support?" Questions like that should never have to be asked by a child. Foua and Nao Kao were illiterate and spoke only Hmong, so there problems were destined from the very beginning. They never understood what the doctors told them unless there was some sort of translator available. When a translator wasn't available they would sign without knowing what for, because they believed that in America if they didn't sign they would be deported or punished. Lia's parents were farm people they didn't know anything about

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is the story by author Anne Fadiman, which explores the clash between a small county hospital in California and a refugee family from Laos over the care of Lia Lee, a Hmong child diagnosed with severe epilepsy. Lia’s parents and her doctors both wanted what was best for Lia, but the lack of communication between them led to tragedy.1The lack of communication due to cultural misunderstanding, mistrust, lack empathy, and poor health literacy led to care being comprised for Lia, which also affected both her parents and healthcare providers.

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

The Hmong cultural/religious belief in shamanistic animism claim that wicked spirits are continually searching human souls, mostly those of defenseless or unappreciated children. For Hmong culture, epilepsy is known as qaug dab peg which means, "the spirit catches you and you fall down" in English (Fadiman 1997), which epileptic invasions are seen as affirmation of the epileptic's capability to enter and stay temporarily into the spirit world (unconsciousness). In Hmong

The first time Lia was brought into the hospital it was hard for the doctors to understand the Lee families beliefs. Jeanine Hall was the only person that took into consideration their beliefs and values. Hall was Lia’s social worker

The intercultural misunderstandings start at birth. When a child is born, Hmong women want their placenta, so that they may bury it. In Laos, this is perfectly normal, but in the United States, most doctors find this strange. Since this is not something regularly practiced in the U.S., when a Hmong woman asks for her placenta, most doctors say no. The few that do agree to give them the placenta pack it in a plastic bag or some other container that degrades the importance of the Hmong culture. Many doctors assumed that the women wanted to eat the placenta. This is wrong, but they would never know because they never took the time to ask. If the doctors had asked why they wanted the placenta, they would easily find out that it’s important to the Hmong culture because their soul and afterlife depend on it.

The book titled The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: Talks about a Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures written by Anne Fadiman. Anne Fadiman is an American essayist and reporter, who interests include literary journalism. She is a champion of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, the Salon Book Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest. In the book, Anne Fadiman explores the clash between a county hospital in California and a refugee family from Laos over the health care of Lia Lee. Lia Lee is a Hmong child diagnosed with severe epilepsy, whose parents and the doctors wanted the best treatment for her, but the lack of communication cause a tragedy. The essay paper will state and explain what went wrong between Lia’s family and the doctors. The central point is a lack of understanding between them leads to Lia’s tragedy.

I have to admit when I first read “The spirit catches you and you fall down” I thought it would be pretty boring turns out its one of the most interesting books I have ever read. The cultural conflicts can apply to anyone and knowing a little bit more now what the Hmong people have actually gone through can make everyone develop a great amount of respect for the culture. The Lee family continuously went full force colliding with the American ways in order to protect their traditions so they could preserve their culture. Unfortunately, in the end it didn’t help them but that was all they knew considering the fact that that the doctors at MCMC hospital didn’t really go out of their way to explain procedures it only makes sense for the Lee family to revert back to what they know in their traditions.

While reading Chapter Three in the text, Adventures in the Human Spirit by Philip Bishop; there were a plethora of passages that stood out and caught my attention. The first passage that caught my attention stated that “Because early Greek communities were so widely dispersed, there was considerable variety I their beliefs and practices, reflecting local traditions”. This caught my attention because even though he early Greeks believed in the Olympian Gods and Goddesses they still held a different God or Goddess at a high standard. For instance, even though the city of Athens believes in the Olympians, the goddess Athena was their patron goddess. This is important because in order to understand the Greek civilization, one needs to know what the most important value was for the people.