novel, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures, Anne Fadiman exposes the clash between the Hmong culture and Western medicine, in addition to the lack of communication and language. Fadiman uses Lia Lee, a Hmong epileptic girl, as a symbol of cultural dissonance and reveals the effects of how a language barrier can have in the health care system. It is believed that all Hmong people have many souls within them and if they become
but once one feels it, it seems problematic to let it go. Kao Kalia Yang wrote the memoir The Latehomecomer, which tells of the toils the Hmong people faced in their excursion from Laos to the United States. Yang uses the story of her parents to convey the sufferings of the Hmong people and their journey. Her parents make a fitting example of a typical Hmong family fighting to survive and find love in a time of war. Although Kao Kalia’s parents met in unfortunate circumstances and had no home to
ANT 228 ASSIGNMENT By: Lindsey Swarvar The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, her American Dreams, and the Collision of Two Cultures by Anne Fadiman Section 1: Multiple Choice Questions Question 1: Chapters 1 and 2 Why do the Hmong people keep and bury the placenta after a baby is born? a. They wanted to save it for a later time so if the baby gets sick they can feed it to them to make them well again. b. They the placenta will collect the babies’ soul prior to traveling on
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
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures written by Anne Fadmin writes “As William Osler once said – or is said to have said – ‘Ask not what disease the person has, but rather what person the disease has” (p. 275). This statement has significant meaning throughout this book especially when it came to the story of Lia. Lia was a young Hmong girl who suffered from Epilepsy. Due the Hmong culture playing a significant role in Lia's
‘The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures’ is a book written in 1997 by the author Anne Fadiman. This book is based on a true story of the life of a Hmong child, Lia Lee who is epileptic. She suffers from numerous grand mal seizures and eventually she becomes vegetative for the remainder of her life. The intention of this book, however, is not Lia’s condition, but to highlight the problems that exist between the two cultures
There are 54 ethnic groups in our country, but I think the Hmong has the most special traditions, the unique costume, and cultural festivals. So today I am going to talk about the Hmong. They have a population of about one a half million, accounting for about 8% of the population in Viet Nam. They live in the mountainous regions in the North like Lao Cai, Lam Dong, Ha Giang, ... some people of the group living overseas: Laos, Thailand, China, .. because of their history of migration and their origins
The Hmong population in the United States was estimated in 2009 by the American Community Survey (ACS) at around 236,000. (Pfeifer, Chiu, and Yang, p.54, 2013)The largest settlements were found in the Midwest with approximately 107,000 people. The West was second largest at approximately 94,000, the South third at approximately 23,000, and the Northeast with the lowest population at approximately 2,000. The remaining settlers were scattered throughout the United States. (Pfeifer, Chiu, and Yang,
Further, the Hmong families are divided by which clans and subgroups they are a part of. There are 19 clans identified within the Hmong culture (Kou 2012). It has been said “The clan acquires its membership through a patrilineal system, identifiable by the male’s last name and therefore, lineage” (Tatman 2004). The clans acquire their names based on the relationship to the father. For example, “Marriage by two individuals within the same clan is not allowed, despite genealogical distance between
From what I gathered from the literature research, my theory is approved. Hmong Children with disabilities receive lower expectation from their parents, and parents have different attitude toward those children. Hmong parents expected children who can learn fast and physical normal because they wanted their children to be successful, and parents are often sadden when found out about their child’s condition. Some parents have no education goal for their children with disabilities because these parents