Community and Anthropology
Community, according to (Wolcott, 22), is an identification that distinguishes the characters and identities of people from various cultures or societies of diverse cultural backgrounds. Thus, anthropology delves into human society by researching various social systems, languages, religious rituals, and magic as an art form. In order to comprehend the cultural differences and their consequences, this paper uses citations from Anne Fadiman's book "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Back" as a lens text to comprehend the therapeutic cultural differences between Americans and Hmong. Therefore, the specific lens citation used to accomplish the assignment is “Dan had no way of knowing that Foua and Nao Kao had already diagnosed their daughter’s problem as the illness where the spirit catches you and you fall down. Foua and Nao Kao had no way of knowing that Dan had diagnosed it as epilepsy, the common of all neurological disorders (Fadiman, 28)."
The Anthropological Ethnography of Americans and Hmong
The anthropological ethnography of the Americans also referred to as the Westerns and the Hmong as exemplified in the “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” offers insights into the medical cultural variation. Cultural differences became barriers between the Americans and the Hmong. For instance, Lee’s parents and the western medics believed in different medical practices as defined by their cultures a situation that rendered Lee a vegetative condition due to colliding and differing medical practices. The Hmong according to (Hillmer, 44), ethnography studies encompass the hill tribes that formerly practiced agriculture in the highlands of China, Laos, as well as Vietnam. The Hmong thus moved into America after withdrawal of U.S, which was anti-communism leading to the end of Vietnam War. The Americans’ had already embraced advancement in technology as applied to medication while the Hmong still believed in the depths of their culture and beliefs. These differences marked the basis under which Lee’s family and the Western Doctors found it had to offer effective medical intervention measures that could cure Lia for the disease which was defined differently by the two antagonistic societies.
Hmong Cultural Practices and Beliefs
The Hmong society in which Lee’s family infers their cultural practices were very much preoccupied with medical issues. They were more concerned with their well-being of both present life and afterlife (Fadiman, 61).In places where the western medical practitioners believed that surgical medication was very necessary as remedies, the Lees’s family believed that their souls had to be kept from wandering as well as not getting sick. In this view, they argued that once they passed on, their souls had to return home through tracing steps from the genesis prior to their death. This actually formed the basis under which problems arose. The Hmong were for the belief that the Western Culture of offering medication pervasively invasive. They were against medical practices such as administration of anesthesia, surgical operations, autopsies, and blood screening. They believed that the aforementioned medical procedures could cause their souls to wander once they passed on and could possibly not reincarnate since their bodies had been tampered with (Fadiman, 33). Taking this into account, Lees family together with the majority of the Hmong society members found it inherently impossible to visit the hospitals. The nonetheless failed to comply with the medical procedures suggested by the American medical practitioners. Owing to such circumstances, the American medical practitioners felt infuriated and frustrated not limited to exhaustion while they dealt with the Hmong patients whom they were trying to save their lives. Much worse in such scenarios was that none of the two conflicting societies was willing to break the cultural barriers in order to create an understanding of either of the sides. Even though they both had good intentions, their cultural differences made it hard to accommodate, understand, and develop amicable solutions to their differences.
Conflicting Cultural Practices and Diagnoses
Correspondingly, whereas the Western Medical practitioners’ such as Dan diagnosed Lia and found out that the disease was a common disorder known as epilepsy, the Lees were of the opinion that their daughter’s condition was one in which one falls down if caught by the spirit (Fadiman, 28). Such contradicting cultures presented hard-liners in which neither of the cultures was willing to compromise their cultural beliefs and practices. Notable is the fact that the Lees’ family, as well as other Hmong populace, had no exposure to the western culture of medication until they came to the refugees’ camp at Thai and later fully exposed while in the United States. Mainly, the Hmong and Lee’s family culturally believed in performing rituals, which included spiritual healings, offering animals as sacred sacrifices and shamanistic rituals to appease the unpleased spirits. In particular, the rituals entertained tools such as the use of gongs, water, which was believed to be blessed, finger bells, herbs and organized chants to find and reincarnate lost souls. Conversely, the Americans believed in the impacts of Biomedicine where the recommended scientific evidence-based medication was administered to the disease diagnosed hence the conflicting cultures.
The Importance of Cultural Understanding
Precisely, Lia’s detrimental and deleterious condition did not result from septic shock, noncompliance to western doctors’ medical procedures or noncompliant parents. Rather, the medical condition intensively worsened due to the unwillingness to compromise either of the cultural practices hence the general misunderstanding between the American medical practitioners and the Lees family as well as the Hmong populace (Waxler-Morrison,58). Therefore, it is of great importance that people constituting a certain society learn and finds it easy to accommodate and embrace varied cultural practices. Either of the cultures is often good irrespective of the society. Thus, societies should find value in accommodating other societies contradicting values. Fadiman (261) agrees to the essentiality of medical cultures harmonization by suggesting medications are the realization of the power and significance of tolerating and embracing different medical cultural practices.
Conclusion
Concisely, it is fundamental that medical practitioners always find it easy to embrace medical pluralism. In this view, they will always offer the opportunity to learn from different cultures as well as find it easy to work in different communities in which they might be total strangers. In embracing and accommodating varied cultural norms, doctors from different societies practicing different cultures will be able to work together aware of each sides differences. These could include language barriers, socio-cultural differences, and medical practices. For instance, the western medical practitioners should not have felt disguised by the hardliners put by the Lees family and other Hmong patients but instead should have taken the initiative of tolerating their differences as well as offering explanations regarding biomedical procedures and diagnosis processes.
Work Cited
Fadiman, Anne. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2012. Print.
Fadiman, Anne. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1997. Print.
Hillmer, Paul. A People’s History of the Hmong. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2010. Print.
Waxler-Morrison, Nancy. Cross-cultural Caring: A Handbook for Health Professionals. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2005. Internet resource.
Wolcott, Harry F. Ethnography: A Way of Seeing. Lanham: AltaMira Press, 2008. Internet resource.