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

Medicine and morality in rural Haiti are shaped both by different local religious traditions and by biomedical and folk medicine practices. People who become ill may seek treatment from Western doctors, but also from herbalists and religious leaders. This study examines the decisions guiding such choices, and considers moral issues arising in a society where suffering is associated with guilt but where different, sometimes conflicting, ethical systems coexist. It also reveals how in the crisis of illness people rework religious identities and are forced to address fundamental social and political problems.

About this title

Book Description

People who become ill in rural Haiti may seek treatment from western doctors, herbalists or religious leaders. Examining the decisions guiding such choices, this study considers moral issues arising in a society where suffering is associated with guilt and conflicting ethical systems coexist.

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

Edition details

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