title: Religious institutions as sites of learning for older adults

authors: Findsen, Brian

subjects: religious

abstract: Religious institutions are not often perceived as sites of learning for older adults. This chapter analyzes religious institutions and the institutionalized church as locations for holistic adult learning in both spiritual and secular realms.

text: Religious institutions as sites of learning for older adults Religious institutions are not often perceived as sites of learning for older adults. This chapter analyzes religious institutions and the institutionalized church as locations for holistic adult learning in both spiritual and secular realms.

year: 2012

title: Healing Pluralism and Responsibility: An Anthropological Study of Patient and Practitioner Beliefs

authors: Miskelly, Philippa Ann

subjects: medical pluralism

abstract: Combining the use of alternative and complementary therapies and orthodox medicine is an increasing phenomenon.  This thesis examines the implications of mixing and matching plural healing modalities against a backdrop of patient and practitioner responsibilities.   

From an anthropological perspective, the predominant use of qualitative methodology is an integral part of this research project.  Central to this study is the views of a variety of participant categories - patients who use both alternative and orthodox healing methods; non-medical alternative and complementary practitioners; medical doctors who integrate orthodox and CAM therapies into their daily practise; and orthodox general practitioners.  Interviews with these participants took place over an eighteen-month timeframe and involved face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews, and focus group research.   Social constructionist theory, which forms part of the compendium of interpretive theoretical approaches adopted under the medical anthropology paradigm, has been used in order to expose the beliefs patients and practitioners hold about their own responsibilities, and those of the other participant categories.

This study reveals a palimpsest of complex, contradictory and competing discourses in relation to patient and practitioner expectations and responsibilities.  One important finding relates to the significance of neo-liberal and individualistic ideologies. This thesis concludes that the rhetoric from complementary and alternative practitioners, and their integrative colleagues, is heavily imbued with ideas about self-responsibility, particularly in relation to patient lifestyle choices and therapeutic compliance.   Patients and orthodox general practitioners share some of these views but in general adopt a more collective approach to health care responsibilities.  While patients are prepared to accept some responsibility for their illnesses and health keeping practises, they express strong reliance towards the orthodox health model as well as those doctors who practise integrative medicine.   However the same cannot be said of their attitudes towards CAM modalities where considerable ambivalence is evident towards both practitioners and the therapies themselves.   

The role of the state, and its responsibilities for the structure of the health care system in New Zealand, is also clearly influential in the construction of belief systems.  This is especially so because the rhetoric underlying neo-liberal and individualistic discourses now permeates the direction of health policies.   Increasing levels of surveillance, both at bureaucratic and individual levels, also attests to the influence of neo-liberalism and individualism.    This study exposes the tensions between the rhetoric of self-responsibility and the lived experiences of patients and health practitioners, which in many cases is more collective in its focus than is initially apparent.

text: Healing Pluralism and Responsibility: An Anthropological Study of Patient and Practitioner Beliefs Combining the use of alternative and complementary therapies and orthodox medicine is an increasing phenomenon.  This thesis examines the implications of mixing and matching plural healing modalities against a backdrop of patient and practitioner responsibilities.   

From an anthropological perspective, the predominant use of qualitative methodology is an integral part of this research project.  Central to this study is the views of a variety of participant categories - patients who use both alternative and orthodox healing methods; non-medical alternative and complementary practitioners; medical doctors who integrate orthodox and CAM therapies into their daily practise; and orthodox general practitioners.  Interviews with these participants took place over an eighteen-month timeframe and involved face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews, and focus group research.   Social constructionist theory, which forms part of the compendium of interpretive theoretical approaches adopted under the medical anthropology paradigm, has been used in order to expose the beliefs patients and practitioners hold about their own responsibilities, and those of the other participant categories.

This study reveals a palimpsest of complex, contradictory and competing discourses in relation to patient and practitioner expectations and responsibilities.  One important finding relates to the significance of neo-liberal and individualistic ideologies. This thesis concludes that the rhetoric from complementary and alternative practitioners, and their integrative colleagues, is heavily imbued with ideas about self-responsibility, particularly in relation to patient lifestyle choices and therapeutic compliance.   Patients and orthodox general practitioners share some of these views but in general adopt a more collective approach to health care responsibilities.  While patients are prepared to accept some responsibility for their illnesses and health keeping practises, they express strong reliance towards the orthodox health model as well as those doctors who practise integrative medicine.   However the same cannot be said of their attitudes towards CAM modalities where considerable ambivalence is evident towards both practitioners and the therapies themselves.   

The role of the state, and its responsibilities for the structure of the health care system in New Zealand, is also clearly influential in the construction of belief systems.  This is especially so because the rhetoric underlying neo-liberal and individualistic discourses now permeates the direction of health policies.   Increasing levels of surveillance, both at bureaucratic and individual levels, also attests to the influence of neo-liberalism and individualism.    This study exposes the tensions between the rhetoric of self-responsibility and the lived experiences of patients and health practitioners, which in many cases is more collective in its focus than is initially apparent.

year: 2006

title: John William Richard Guilding

authors: Hart, Philip

abstract: Born in Auckland in 1842, by his late teenage years John William Richard Guilding was trading with Maori in the Piako district. Protected by a rangatira, he established a store at Kerepehi, but despite being known to be ‘friendly’ with Maori he was driven off after the start of the Waikato War. In 1864, again with the approval of a rangatira, he erected a store on the site of the future township of Thames. Although he claimed to have found signs of gold there, he was not the prospector who produced the samples that led to the opening of the goldfield. In 1869 he was appointed a licensed interpreter, in which role he assisted both the Crown and private individuals to acquire Maori land. Some of these transactions created controversy, and he was accused of tricking Maori. In 1875 his attempt to use his position as James Mackay’s interpreter to acquire a lease of land at Tairua for his own financial gain provoked much criticism, and his ‘irregular practices’ led to his dismissal as a licensed interpreter in 1883. He would continue to act for individuals as both an interpreter and a land agent in Ohinemuri and Te Aroha in subsequent years.
Guilding’s close links with Maori were in part explained by his private life. Having married a ‘half-caste’ who later left him for another man, he had three more ‘marriages’ and several more children, who were brought up in Pakeha ways. Financially, he always struggled, filing as bankrupt twice and dying in straightened circumstances. At Te Aroha he held several minor official positions, sometimes being criticized for his performance. Active in local politics, he was generally unpopular and was never elected to the positions he sought. Throughout his life his reputation amongst a sizeable number of his contemporaries was poor.

text: John William Richard Guilding Born in Auckland in 1842, by his late teenage years John William Richard Guilding was trading with Maori in the Piako district. Protected by a rangatira, he established a store at Kerepehi, but despite being known to be ‘friendly’ with Maori he was driven off after the start of the Waikato War. In 1864, again with the approval of a rangatira, he erected a store on the site of the future township of Thames. Although he claimed to have found signs of gold there, he was not the prospector who produced the samples that led to the opening of the goldfield. In 1869 he was appointed a licensed interpreter, in which role he assisted both the Crown and private individuals to acquire Maori land. Some of these transactions created controversy, and he was accused of tricking Maori. In 1875 his attempt to use his position as James Mackay’s interpreter to acquire a lease of land at Tairua for his own financial gain provoked much criticism, and his ‘irregular practices’ led to his dismissal as a licensed interpreter in 1883. He would continue to act for individuals as both an interpreter and a land agent in Ohinemuri and Te Aroha in subsequent years.
Guilding’s close links with Maori were in part explained by his private life. Having married a ‘half-caste’ who later left him for another man, he had three more ‘marriages’ and several more children, who were brought up in Pakeha ways. Financially, he always struggled, filing as bankrupt twice and dying in straightened circumstances. At Te Aroha he held several minor official positions, sometimes being criticized for his performance. Active in local politics, he was generally unpopular and was never elected to the positions he sought. Throughout his life his reputation amongst a sizeable number of his contemporaries was poor.

year: 2016