A Failure of Treatment (Oxford Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology)

This book is a study of a serious illness in a New Guinea village. It records the failure of local treatments and Western medicine, and of a communal ritual to bring a spirit to heal a man; it also shows how cultural beliefs and assumptions may influence events. The author, an anthropologist and medical doctor, focuses on how those closely involved maintained their hope and beliefs, and how they faced the realization of failure.

Politics & Social Sciences

Lewis, Gilbert

Social Sciences

Oxford University Press

Knowledge of Illness in a Sepik Society: A Study of the Gnau, New Guinea Volume 52 (LSE Monographs on Social Anthropology)

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Mental Health

Routledge

Illness is a matter of concern in every society. Social responses to it depend both on the nature of the illness and on cultural interpretation of its significance. This study of the occurrence, recognition and explanation of illness amongst the Gnau makes use of its author's dual training in medicine and anthropology to show why, how far, and in what respects these people of a forest village in New Guinea turn to their religious and magical knowledge in the distress of illness. The analyis shows how a study of ilness can reveal belief and open an illummatlng and crucial perspective on a society's view of its world.

Knowledge of Illness in a Sepik Society: A Study of the Gnau, New Guinea (London School of Economics Monographs on Social Anthropology)

Anthropology

Longwood Pr Ltd

Knowledge of Illness in a Sepik Society A Study of the Gnau, New Guinea (London School of Economics Monographs on Social Anthropology)

Athalone Press University of London

Anthropologists, in studying other cultures, are often tempted to offer their own explanations of strange customs when they feel that the people involved have not given a good enough reason for these customs. The question how the anthropologist can justify interpretations of customs which go beyond those offered by the people themselves runs through this book. The book focuses on the various interpretations that have been offered by anthropologists of ritual and symbolism. It offers a critical discussion of theories in this field in general, identifying their strengths and weaknesses when applied to the particular case of puberty rituals in a West Sepik village in Papua New Guinea. It then goes on to suggest an alternative approach, which draws on aesthetic as well as anthropological theory, and pays particular attention to the emotional and aesthetic experiences of people as they perform the rites.

Day of Shining Red (Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology, Series Number 27)

Cambridge University Press

Anthropologists, in studying other cultures, are often tempted to offer their own explanations of strange customs when they feel that the people involved have not given a good enough reason for these customs. The question how the anthropologist can justify interpretations of customs which go beyond those offered by the people themselves runs through this book. The book focuses on the various interpretations that have been offered by anthropologists of ritual and symbolism. It offers a critical discussion of theories in this field in general, identifying their strengths and weaknesses when applied to the particular case of puberty rituals in a West Sepik village in Papua New Guinea. It then goes on to suggest an alternative approach, which draws on aesthetic as well as anthropological theory, and pays particular attention to the emotional and aesthetic experiences of people as they perform the rites.

Illness is a matter of concern in every society. This study of the occurrence, recognition and explanation of illness amongst the Gnau makes use of its author's dual training in medicine and anthropology to show why, and in what respects these people of a forest village turn to their religious and magical knowledge in the distress of illness.

In this book, written between 1979 and 2020, Gilbert Lewis distills a lifetime of insights he garnered as a medical anthropologist. He asks: How do different cultures' beliefs about illness influence patients' abilities to heal? Despite the advances of Western medicine, what can it learn from non-Western societies that consider sickness and curing to be as much a matter of social relationships as biological states? What problems arise when one set of therapeutic practices displaces another? Lewis compares Indigenous medical beliefs in New Guinea in 1968, when villagers were largely self-reliant, and in 1983, after they became dependent on Western medicine. He then widens his comparative scope by turning to West Africa and discussing a therapeutic community run by a prophet who heals the ill through confession and long-term residential care. Pandora's Box began life with the prestigious Lewis Henry Morgan Lectures that Gilbert Lewis delivered in 1979 at the University of Rochester. He expanded them with materials gathered over the next forty years, completing the manuscript a few weeks before his death. Engagingly written, this book will inspire anthropologists, medical professionals, students, and curious readers to look with new eyes at current crises in world health.

Pandora's Box: Ethnography and the Comparison of Medical Beliefs: The 1979 Lewis Henry Morgan Lectures

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Books by Lewis, Gilbert

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Lewis, Gilbert. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

A Failure of Treatment (Oxford Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology)

A Failure of Treatment (Oxford Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology)

Knowledge of Illness in a Sepik Society: A Study of the Gnau, New Guinea Volume 52 (LSE Monographs on Social Anthropology)

Knowledge of Illness in a Sepik Society: A Study of the Gnau, New Guinea (London School of Economics Monographs on Social Anthropology)

Knowledge of Illness in a Sepik Society A Study of the Gnau, New Guinea (London School of Economics Monographs on Social Anthropology)

Day of Shining Red (Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology, Series Number 27)

Day of Shining Red (Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology, Series Number 27)

Knowledge of Illness in a Sepik Society: A Study of the Gnau, New Guinea Volume 52 (LSE Monographs on Social Anthropology)

Pandora's Box: Ethnography and the Comparison of Medical Beliefs: The 1979 Lewis Henry Morgan Lectures