Quest for Therapy: Medical Pluralism in Lower Zaire: Volume 1 (Comparative Studies of Health Systems and Medical Care) - Softcover

Janzen, John M.; Arkinstall, William; Leslie, Charles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0520046331 ISBN 13: 9780520046337

Verlag: University of California Press, 1982

Inhaltsangabe

Book by Janzen John M Arkinstall MD William

Über diesen Titel

Reseña del editor:

In this book, Dr. John M. Janzen describes patterns of healing among the BaKongo of Lower Zaire in Africa, who, like many people elsewhere, utilize cosmopolitan medicine alongside traditional healing practices. What criteria, he asks, determine the choice of the alternative therapies? And what is their institutional interrelationship? In seeking answers, he analyzes case histories and cultural contexts to explore what social transactions, decision making, illness and therapy classifications, and resource allocations are used in the choice of therapy by the ill, their kinfolk, friends, associates, and specialized practitioners. From the Preface: this book presents an 'on the ground' ethnographic account of how medical clients of one region of Lower Zaire diagnose illness, select therapies, and evaluate treatments, a process we call 'therapy management'. The book is intended to clarify a phenomenon of which central African clients have long been cognizant, namely, that medical systems are used in combination. Our study is aimed primarily at readers interested in the practical issues of medical decision-making in an African country, the cultural content of symptoms, and the dynamics of medical pluralism, that is, the existence in a single society of differently designed and conceived medical systems.

Biografía del autor:

John M. Janzen is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Kansas. His books include Lemba 1650-1930 (1982) and Ngoma: Discourses of Healing in Central and Southern Africa (California, 1992).

Über diese Auflage

• Verlag: University of California Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1982
• ISBN 10: 0520046331
• ISBN 13: 9780520046337
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Anzahl der Seiten: 307