Concepts of Illness and Treatment Practice in a Caboclo Community of the Lower Amazon

Reeve, Mary-Elizabeth

doi:10.1525/maq.2000.14.1.96

Cited by 16 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…[45], medicinal plants are preferred to treat simpler health problems that do not require medical care, such as gastrointestinal problems and colds. In addition, medicinal plants are the principal method used for self-treatment by local communities [17, 46] and are important in primary healthcare in rural areas [16], and this is reflected in the high levels of plant use to treat primary health problems compared to the use of allopathic drugs in the studied communities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The coexistence of traditional medicine and biomedicine: A study with local health experts in two Brazilian regions

Zank

Hanazaki

2017

PLoS ONE

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This study investigated the combined use of traditional medicine and biomedicine by local experts in Chapada do Araripe communities (Ceará State) and maroon communities (Santa Catarina State), Brazil. The objective was to understand the perception of local health specialists regarding the number of healers, demand for healers and use of medicinal plants, and the dependence of different environments to obtain such plants. We also aimed to understand the role of medicinal plants to treat different categories of diseases and if there is a complementary use of medicinal plants and allopathic biomedicine, according to the context of each group. The research was conducted with local health specialists that answered structured interviews, created free lists and participated in guided tours to collect cited plants. Sixty-six local health specialists were identified in the Araripe communities and 22 specialists in the maroon communities. In the maroon communities, a greater number of specialists thought there was a decrease in the number and demand for healers, as well as the use of medicinal plants, due to changes in traditional livelihoods, since they are located in a region where the effects of the modernization were more intense. In the Chapada do Araripe communities the specialists knew more plants extracted from native vegetation, whereas in the maroon communities cultivated plants were better known, which may reflect the environmental conditions and the history of each region. Medicinal plants are preferred to treat simpler health problems that do not require medical care, such as gastrointestinal problems, general pain, flues and colds. The biomedicine is used principally for problems with blood pressure, general pains and endocrine and nutritional diseases. Even with the particularities of each region, in general the use of medicinal plants and biomedicines occurred in a complementary form in both regions; however, this coexistence may result from these different contexts. This study also found that there was knowledge and appreciation for traditional health practices in both regions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The coexistence of traditional medicine and biomedicine: A study with local health experts in two Brazilian regions

Zank

Hanazaki

2017

PLoS ONE

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“…Several studies have explored treatment-seeking patterns in situations in which people used both indigenous and Western treatments (for example, Green, 1985;Ngokwey, 1995;Reeve, 2000). Participants in these studies varied in their exposure to, preferences for, and access to Western treatment, and as a result their treatment-seeking patterns varied.…”

Section: Treatment-seeking Pathwaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

Navigating Between Illness Paradigms: Treatment Seeking by Samoan People in Samoa and New Zealand

Norris

Fa'alau

Va'ai³

et al. 2009

Qual Health Res

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There are substantial Samoan communities in New Zealand. Most Samoan people use both palagi (Western) and traditional Samoan health care. Western practitioners sometimes comment on Samoan patients' seemingly erratic patterns of seeking and using health care. Within a larger study on knowledge and the use of antibiotics, we carried out semistructured interviews with 31 Samoan people in Samoa and New Zealand.Accounts of participants' responses to illness and patterns of treatment seeking reveal how Samoan people draw on traditional and Western models of treatment and healing resources. Samoan people are very active interpreters of illness symptoms, using (at least) the two illness paradigms they know of to make sense of symptoms.These paradigms and systems of treatment are sometimes used experimentally, to determine whether illnesses are Samoan or Western. Symptom interpretation and decision making about treatment are done at the family level as well as the individual level. The individual might hold a particular view of what symptoms mean and what to do about them, but might not act on this if overruled or persuaded by other family members.

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“…[21,22]). In many rural Amazonian areas, physical isolation and financial poverty mean phytotherapy may be one of the few options to treat health problems [23,24]. When populations leave rural areas for the city, however, they live closer to pharmacies, doctors, clinics and hospitals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Length of residence, age and patterns of medicinal plant knowledge and use among women in the urban Amazon

Wayland

Walker

2014

J Ethnobiology Ethnomedicine

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BackgroundThis paper explores patterns of women’s medicinal plant knowledge and use in an urban area of the Brazilian Amazon. Specifically, this paper examines the relationship between a woman’s age and her use and knowledge of medicinal plants. It also examines whether length of residence in three different areas of the Amazon is correlated with a woman’s use and knowledge of medicinal plants. Two of the areas where respondents may have resided, the jungle/seringal and farms/colonias, are classified as rural. The third area (which all of the respondents resided in) was urban.MethodsThis paper utilizes survey data collected in Rio Branco, Brazil. Researchers administered the survey to 153 households in the community of Bairro da Luz (a pseudonym). The survey collected data on phytotherapeutic knowledge, general phytotherapeutic practice, recent phytotherapeutic practice and demographic information on age and length of residence in the seringal, on a colonia, and in a city. Bivariate correlation coefficients were calculated to assess the inter-relationships among the key variables. Three dependent variables, two measuring general phytotherapeutic practice and one measuring phytotherapeutic knowledge were regressed on the demographic factors.ResultsThe results demonstrate a relationship between a woman’s age and medicinal plant use, but not between age and plant knowledge. Additionally, length of residence in an urban area and on a colonia/farm are not related to medicinal plant knowledge or use. However, length of residence in the seringal/jungle is positively correlated with both medicinal plant knowledge and use.ConclusionsThe results reveal a vibrant tradition of medicinal plant use in Bairro da Luz. They also indicate that when it comes to place of residence and phytotherapy the meaningful distinction is not rural versus urban, it is seringal versus other locations. Finally, the results suggest that phytotherapeutic knowledge and use should be measured separately since one may not be an accurate proxy for the other.

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Concepts of Illness and Treatment Practice in a Caboclo Community of the Lower Amazon

Cited by 16 publications

References 14 publications

The coexistence of traditional medicine and biomedicine: A study with local health experts in two Brazilian regions

The coexistence of traditional medicine and biomedicine: A study with local health experts in two Brazilian regions

Navigating Between Illness Paradigms: Treatment Seeking by Samoan People in Samoa and New Zealand

Length of residence, age and patterns of medicinal plant knowledge and use among women in the urban Amazon

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