Book
Interpreting signs of illness: a case study in medical semiotics
Mouton de Gruyter • Berlin • Published In 1986 • Pages: 18, 284
By: Staiano-Ross, Kathryn.
Abstract
The primary emphasis in this work is to present a study of the medical beliefs and practices of the Garifuna or Garifunas living in the town of Punta Gorda in Belize. There is much information here on various types of medical practitioners, diagnosis of disease, and forms of treatment for specific diseases. Staiano, using the concepts of semiotic theory as the basis of her analytic framework, explores the processes of communication, interpretation and negotiation among the Garifuna and examines the way in which signs of health and illness '...serve as metaphors, functioning to represent an object, event, or relationship whose association to the sign itself is never obvious, or as metonyms, acting to 'stand for' some greater whole' (p. xi). Since the Garifuna do not live in isolation from other ethnic groups, nor are they ignorant of Western medicine, this source also presents much information on conflict and competition among biomedical, ethnomedical and sacred medical paradigms, but at the same time showing in the overview how co-existence, co-optation, and to a lesser degree cooperation, can emerge as well.
- HRAF PubDate
- 2005
- Region
- Middle America and the Caribbean
- Sub Region
- Central America
- Document Type
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator Types
- Ethnologist
- Linguist
- Document Rating
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- Analyst
- John Beierle ; 1989-1991
- Field Date
- 1979-1984
- Coverage Date
- 1960-1984
- Coverage Place
- Punta Gorda, Belize
- Notes
- [by] Kathryn Vance Staiano
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 263-268) and index
- LCCN
- 85029337
- LCSH
- Garifuna (Caribbean people)