scholarly journals Between the foreign and the local: French midwifery, traditional practitioners, and vernacular medical knowledge about childbirth in Lima, Peru

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 179-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Warren

This article examines the politics of midwifery and the persecution of untitled female assistants in childbirth in early republican Peru. A close reading of late colonial publications and the works of Benita Paulina Cadeau Fessel, a French obstetriz director of a midwifery school in Lima, demonstrates both trans-Atlantic and local influences in the campaign against untitled midwives. Cadeau Fessel's efforts to promote midwifery built upon debates among writers in Peru's enlightened press, who vilified untrained midwives' and wet nurses' vernacular medical knowledge and associated them with Lima's underclass. One cannot understand the transfer of French knowledge about professional midwifery to Peru without reference to the social, political, and cultural context.

2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 199-213
Author(s):  
Dorina-Daniela Vasiloiu

Abstract In the present study, I seek to examine narrative in consideration of three of its most important dimensions: the social (others’ narratives), the cognitive (acquisition of knowledge through stories), and the linguistic (acquiring and producing knowledge through language). There is no point of contention that ‘narrative’ is essentially communicative and dependent on a sociolinguistic and cultural context. Yet, with regard to fictional narratives, recent studies on text processing challenge the view of text as communication in its conventional sense. I explore the way(s) in which fictional worlds communicate from the constructivist standpoint and set out to develop the notion of narratorial stance. I then make use of the concept in the close reading section of the paper in order to examine and exemplify the modes in which Hornby’s homodiegetic narrators represent themselves and the others in their ‘turn-at-talk’ or stance-taking acts


2010 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 1055-1072 ◽  
Author(s):  
SHANNON MCDERMOTT

ABSTRACTOver the past 50 years, self-neglect among older people has been conceptualised in both social policy and the academy as a social problem which is defined in relation to medical illness and requires professional intervention. Few authors, however, have analysed the concept of self-neglect in relation to critical sociological theory. This is problematic because professional judgements, which provide the impetus for intervention, are inherently influenced by the social and cultural context. The purpose of this article is to use critical theory as a framework for interpreting the findings from a qualitative study which explored judgements in relation to older people in situations of self-neglect made by professionals. Two types of data were collected. There were 125 hours of observations at meetings and home assessments conducted by professionals associated with the Community Options Programme in Sydney, Australia, and 18 professionals who worked with self-neglecting older people in the community gave in-depth qualitative interviews. The findings show that professional judgements of self-neglect focus on risk and capacity, and that these perceptions influence when and how interventions occur. The assumptions upon which professional judgements are based are then further analysed in relation to critical theory.


2012 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Wolfgram

AbstractThis article documents the practices of pharmaceutical creativity in Ayurveda, focusing in particular on how practitioners appropriate multiple sources to innovate medical knowledge. Drawing on research in linguistic anthropology on the social circulation of discourse—a process calledentextualization—I describe how the ways in which Ayurveda practitioners innovate medical knowledge confounds the dichotomous logic of intellectual property (IP) rights discourse, which opposes traditional collective knowledge and modern individual innovation. While it is clear that these categories do not comprehend the complex nature of creativity in Ayurveda, I also use the concept of entextualization to describe how recent historical shifts in the circulation of discourse have caused a partial entailment of this opposition between the individual and the collectivity. Ultimately, I argue that the method exemplified in this article of tracking the social circulation of medical discourse highlights both the empirical complexity of so-called traditional creativity, and the politics of imposing the categories of IP rights discourse upon that creativity, situated as it often is, at the margins of the global economy.


2014 ◽  
Vol 39 (6) ◽  
pp. 519-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evren Etel ◽  
Bilge Yagmurlu

This study had two aims. The first aim was to measure mental state understanding in institution-reared children by using a theory of mind (ToM) scale, and to examine the role of cultural context in sequencing of ToM acquisition. The other aim was to investigate ToM in relation to social competence and executive function (EF). Due to its pronounced role in mental state understanding and social interactions, we assessed receptive language as well. The participants were 107 institution-reared children aged 3 to 5 years in Turkey. Two visits were held within 2 days for behavioral assessments. In the first visit, the ToM scale was administered; in the second visit, the child was given the language test and the EF tasks. The social competence scales were completed by the child’s primary care provider in the institution. Guttman scaling analysis revealed that an understanding of diverse beliefs developed earlier than knowledge access, favoring the “individualistic pattern.” The regression analysis showed that EF was a significant predictor of ToM, but neither of them was associated with social competence when age was controlled. Receptive language predicted social competence and EF directly, and ToM indirectly through EF, pointing to the importance of this ability for early development.


Author(s):  
Genevieve R Cox ◽  
Paula FireMoon ◽  
Michael P Anastario ◽  
Adriann Ricker ◽  
Ramey Escarcega-Growing Thunder ◽  
...  

Theoretical frameworks rooted in Western knowledge claims utilized for public health research in the social sciences are not inclusive of American Indian communities. Developed by Indigenous researchers, Indigenous standpoint theory builds from and moves beyond Western theoretical frameworks. We argue that using Indigenous standpoint theory in partnership with American Indian communities works to decolonize research related to American Indian health in the social sciences and combats the effects of colonization in three ways. First, Indigenous standpoint theory aids in interpreting how the intersections unique to American Indians including the effects of colonization, tribal and other identities, and cultural context are linked to structural inequalities for American Indian communities. Second, Indigenous standpoint theory integrates Indigenous ways of knowing with Western research orientations and methodologies in a collaborative process that works to decolonize social science research for American Indians. Third, Indigenous standpoint theory promotes direct application of research benefits to American Indian communities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Virginie Abat-Roy

As the academic and social-emotional needs of students in schools continue to increase, so too does the presence of dogs in educational spaces. This article aims to present an overview of past and present animal-assisted intervention practices in school settings. This comprehensive literature review examines the current state of research within this field of study. Data from 29 publications were selected according to strict inclusion and exclusion criteria. The results highlight three categories in which the presence of dogs in schools have an impact: social-emotional, cognitive, and physiological. Challenges to program implementation include health risks, cultural context, and negative effects on the animal. Due to the lack of school-based research, more study is needed, especially in order to understand the effect of dogs on the social-emotional learning of students. Finally, the welfare and training of the animals involved should be taken into consideration, and regulations regarding handler and animal training should be enforced.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 68-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakob Krause-Jensen

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse through ethnographic fieldwork the social and cultural context and (unintended) consequences of introducing a management concept from the private sector (LEAN) into the public sector. Design/methodology/approach Ethnographic fieldwork combined with reading of reports and material. Findings The major findings are: first, Lean is seen in a cultural context, it is argued that the persuasiveness of Lean depends on building a metaphorical connection between organizational aims and individual experiences and bodily ideals; second, Lean purports to be a win-win game and road to eliminating “waste” through worker participation, empowerment and enthusiasm. The research points to the contrary. Lean was met with scepticism and was seen by the social workers as a waste of time. Originality/value As demonstrated in the paper, the vast majority of research published about Lean is hortatory in nature. It is recipe books trying to convince readers of the benefits of introducing Lean. This paper, on the contrary, attempts an open ethnographic exploration of the Lean process and its social and cultural ramifications.


The same roles adopted by people involved in mass media enterprises, such as producers or distributors of feature films, are involved in practices surrounding personal memory artefacts such as photographs, home videos or diary entries. When the social context of such practices changes, these roles are renegotiated in relation to the people with whom we communicate and the tools we use to help us. A pilot study combined an analysis of sets of photographs taken by different participants at the same event – a wedding – with interviews that explored the phenomenological experience of engaging in memory practices connected to these photo sets. Focusing on personal photography, seven media roles were selected as a framework for examining changes in artefact-related memory practices due to shifting socio-cultural contexts and technological affordances. These roles – Creator, Director, Archivist, Gatekeeper, Distributor, Consumer and Critic – were found to be useful in highlighting individual differences in capturing, organising, reviewing and sharing photographs amongst people with varying technological engagement in varying social groupings. Preliminary findings suggest that technological affordances and constraints can change the social and cultural context of communication as well as personal goals of media production and consumption. Different media tools create subjective triggers and barriers for the adoption of roles, making some processes of media production or consumption easier or more accessible to certain types of people while other processes may become more complex or culturally inappropriate. These triggers and barriers, in combination with a continuous reconfiguration of related cultural norms, affect the adoption of roles and these roles directly affect engagement with memory artefacts. This paper forms part of a larger project that aims to explore how our changing engagement with technology is affecting our individual and collective memory practices.

2012 ◽  
pp. 27-40

ATAVISME ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-31
Author(s):  
Ratna Asmarani

Identity is crucial in a person’s life. Diasporic identity is much more complicated because it involves at least two cultures. The focus of this paper is to analyze the diasporic identity of three generations of diasporic Chinese females as represented in Lian Gouw’s novel entitled Only a Girl. The data and supporting concepts are compiled using library research and close reading. The qualitative analysis is used to support the contextual literary analysis combining the intrinsic aspect focusing on the female characters and the extrinsic aspects concerning diaspora and identity. The results shows that each Chinese female character has tried to construct her own diasporic identity. However, the social, cultural, political, educational, and economic contexts play a great role in the struggles to construct the diasporic identity. It can be concluded that the younger the generation, the braver their effort to construct their diasporic identity and the braver their decision to take a distance with the big family house eventhough they have to face stronger and more complicated conflicts to realize and actualize their personal construction of diasporic identity.


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