Health care in Maya Guatemala : confronting medical pluralism in a developing country / Walter Randolph Adams, John P. Hawkins.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Adams, Walter Randolph.

Contributor:

Hawkins, John Palmer, 1946-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mayas--Medicine--Guatemala.

Mayas.

Mayas--Medical care--Guatemala.

Traditional medicine--Guatemala.

Traditional medicine.

Medical care--Guatemala.

Medical care.

Mayas--Medicine.

Guatemala--Social conditions.

Guatemala.

Social conditions.

Physical Description:

xvii, 268 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, [2007]

Summary:

When the traditional meets the modern, nowhere is the impact felt as personally as in the realm of health care. And because practitioners trained in Western science tend to ignore traditional medicine in developing countries, conflict is inevitable. Health Care in Maya Guatemala examines medical systems and institutions in three K'iche' Maya communities to reveal the conflicts between indigenous medical care and the Guatemalan biomedical system. The editors and contributors show how people in this rapidly modernizing society think about traditional practices-and reveal that health conditions in traditional communities deteriorate over time as long-standing medical practices erode in the face of Western encroachment.

The contributors first consider cultural, institutional, and behavioral aspects of health care in Guatemala. Then they look closely at the nature and treatment of specific health issues, such as dentistry and mental health-especially depression. Finally they provide new insight on midwifery, nutrition, ethnomedicine, and other topics.

As a whole, the volume proposes steps toward a health care system more accessible to Mayas, incorporating K'iche' concepts with Western thought. Representing trends seen throughout the world, it shows the necessity of cultural understanding if poor people are to have access to medicine that combines the best of both local tradition and international biomedicine. Although Western medicine continues to ignore the importance of local culture in its attempt to be "scientific," this book makes a strong argument for giving tradition its due.

Contents:

Introduction: The Continuing Disjunction between Traditional and Western Medical Beliefs and Practices in Guatemala / Walter Randolph Adams, John P. Hawkins 3

Part I The Health Care System in Guatemala: Cultural, Institutional, and Behavioral Perspectives

1 "Someone Is Making You Sick": Conceptions of Disease in Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan / Jason Harris 27

2 "No One Wants to Become a Healer": Herbal Medicine and Ethnobotanical Knowledge in Nahuala / Jolene Yukes 44

3 "If We Do Not Eat Milpa, We Die": The Cultural Basis of Health in Nahuala / Steven Shem Rode 69

4 "The Solution Is Prevention": The National Rural Health Care System in Nahuala / Michael Duncan Jones 86

5 "The Sickness Was Too Strong": Medical Choice in Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan / Jennifer Leyn 100

Part II The Nature and Treatment of Specific Conditions

6 "Your Destiny Is to Care for Pregnant Women": Midwives and Childbirth in Nahuala / Kevara Ellsworth Wilson 125

7 "Tortillas Give Us Strength": An Assessment of Eating in Nueva Ixtahuacan / Deborah L. Lee 148

8 "Wild Greens Every Day, That Is All We Ate": Malnutrition and Development in Nahuala / Bronwyn M. Sinclair 166

9 "If My Tooth Hurts, I Pull It Out": Oral Health in Antigua Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan / Jared T. Lee 179

10 Sadness in the Highlands: A Study of Depression in Nueva Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan / Emily R. Sullivan 194

Conclusion: Good Medicine: Steps Toward a Maya-Accessible Health Care System / John P. Hawkins, Walter Randolph Adams 215

Undergraduate Student Contributors 257.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-255) and index.

ISBN:

9780806138596

0806138599

OCLC:

85622920