Medicine and Morality in Haiti: The Contest for Healing Power (Cambridge Studies in Medical Anthropology, Series Number 3) - Hardcover

Brodwin, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521570298 ISBN 13: 9780521570299

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1996

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review

"This book enlarges our interpretive framework for understanding the symbolic dimensions of therapeutic choice. It provides an important perspective on religion and healing in Haiti in a powerful way few other works have achieved." Medical Anthropology Quarterly

Book Description

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521570298
• ISBN 13: 9780521570299
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 250