Medicine and Morality in Haiti: The Contest for Healing Power - Brossura

Brodwin, Paul

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0521575435 ISBN 13: 9780521575430

Casa editrice: Cambridge University Press, 2010

Riassunto

Morality and medicine are inextricably intertwined in rural Haiti, and both are shaped by the different local religious traditions, Christian and Vodoun, as well as by biomedical and folk medical practices. When people fall ill, they seek treatment not only from Western doctors but also from herbalists, religious healers and midwives. Dr Brodwin examines the situational logic, the pragmatic decisions, that guide people in making choices when they are faced with illness. He also explains the moral issues that arise in a society where suffering is associated with guilt, but where different, sometimes conflicting, ethical systems coexist. Moreover, he shows how in the crisis of illness people rework religious identities and are forced to address fundamental social and political problems.

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Descrizione del libro

Medicine and morality in rural Haiti are shaped both by different local religious traditions and by biomedical and folk medical practices. People who become ill may seek treatment from Western doctors but also from herbalists and religious healers. This study examines the logic behind these choices, and the moral issues where suffering is associated with guilt, but where different, sometimes conflicting, ethical systems coexist.

Contenuti

Part I. History and Ethnography of Biomedicine: 2. Metropolitan medicine and strategies of rule; 3. Biomedicine in Jeanty; 4. Medicalization and illness experience: two case studies; Part II. The Moral Discourse of Medical Pluralism: 5. The Catholic practice of healing; 6. Houngan and the limits to Catholic morality; 7. Religious healing and the fragmentation of rural life; 8. Conclusion.

Dettagli dell?edizione

• Editore: Cambridge University Press
• Data di pubblicazione: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0521575435
• ISBN 13: 9780521575430
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Lingua: Inglese
• Numero di pagine: 256