The healthy ancestor
Subtitle: embodied inequality and the revitalization of native hawai'ian health
By: Juliet McMullin.
Series: Advances in critical medical anthropology
Publisher: Left Coast Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Walnut Creek, Calif
Language: eng
Number of pages: 199
ISBN-13: 9781598744996
Subjects: Medical anthropology -- Hawaii; Public health -- Hawaii; Traditional medicine -- Hawaii; Hawaiians -- Health and hygiene; Hawaiians -- Medical care; Hawaiians -- Ethnic identity; Body, Human -- Social aspects -- Hawaii
Description: "Native Americans, researchers increasingly worry, are disproportionately victims of epidemics and poor health because they "fail" to seek medical care, are "non-compliant" patients, or "lack immunity" enjoyed by the "mainstream" population. Challenging this dominant approach to indigenous health, Juliet McMullin shows how it masks more fundamental inequalities that become literally embodied in Native Americans, shifting blame from unequal social relations to biology, individual behavior, and cultural or personal deficiencies. Weaving a complex story of Native Hawai'ian health in its historical, political, and cultural context, she shows how traditional practices that integrated relationships of caring for the land, the body, and the ancestors are being revitalized both on the islands and in the indigenous diaspora. For the fields of medical anthropology, public health, nursing, epidemiology, and indigenous studies, McMullin's important book offers models for more effective and culturally appropriate approaches to building healthy communities."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.