From the Bush: The Front Line of Health Care in a Caribbean Village (Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology)

Quinlan, Marsha B.

ISBN 10: 0155085670 / ISBN 13: 9780155085671

Published by Cengage Learning, 2003

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 0155085670-4-34086332

Bibliographic Details

• Title: From the Bush: The Front Line of Health Care in a Caribbean Village (Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology)
• Publisher: Cengage Learning
• Publication Date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0155085670
• ISBN 13: 9780155085671
• Binding: paperback
• Condition: Fair
• Weight: 8 ounces

About this title

Synopsis

This case study will be the first to deal with a topic in medical anthropology. It explores the world of folk medicine in the Caribbean (Dominica) - local beliefs and practices concerning how the body functions and malfunctions and the home remedies Dominicans use to cure common illnesses. The case study goes beyond discussing the exotic medical system of a developing country (which includes sorcery and folk-illnesses) to discuss how folk medicine flourishes in industrialized countries in a way that is little different than that practiced in Dominica. The theme is that cultural ideas about the body and uses of medicinal plants are deeply intertwined. Ideas about illness direct the consequent medical response. The book's topic is important because knowledge of local ethnomedical practice is essential for development of public health interventions in non-Western settings. This realist ethnography is aimed at any member of the generally educated population.

About the Author

Marsha Quinlan is a broadly-experienced medical anthropologist with expertise in cultural notions of disease and healing and medical botany. Quinlan has a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Missouri-Columbia and teaches anthropology at Washington State University. She has conducted research with residents of this Dominican community since 1993.