Indigenous theories of contagious disease

Bibliographic Information

Indigenous theories of contagious disease

Edward C. Green

AltaMira Press, c1999

  • : cloth
  • : pbk

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Includes bibliographical references (p. 271-292) and indexes

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Far from being the province of magic, witchcraft, and sorcery, indigenous understanding of contagious disease in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world very often parallels western concepts of germ theory, according to the author. Labeling this 'indigenous contagion theory (ICT),' Green synthesizes the voluminous ethnographic work on tropical diseases and remedies_as well as 20 years of his own studies and interventions on sexually transmitted diseases, AIDS, and traditional healers in southern Africa_to demonstrate how indigenous peoples generally conceive of contagious diseases as having naturalistic causes. His groundbreaking work suggests how western medical practitioners can incorporate ICT to better help native peoples control contagious diseases.

Table of Contents

chapter 1 W. Penn Handwerker, Foreword chapter 2 Acknowledgments chapter 3 Introduction chapter 4 1: African Health Beliefs chapter 5 2: Pollution and Other Contagion Beliefs Among Bantu Speakers chapter 6 3: Resistance to Illness and the Internal Snake Concept chapter 7 4: Child Diarrhea chapter 8 5: Sexually Transmitted Diseases and AIDS chapter 9 6: Malaria, Tuberculosis, and Other Infectious Diseases chapter 10 7: Indigenous Contagion Theory in Broader Perspective chapter 11 8: Theoretical Implications chapter 12 References chapter 13 Index chapter 14 About the Author

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