article

The malaria cognate: folk classification of illness among the Abagusii of Kenya

African anthropology4 (2)Published In 1997 • Pages: 27-34

By: Nyamongo, Isaac K..

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This paper presents data on an on-going research project among the Abagusii (Gusii) of southwestern Kenya, with a focus on people's health-care seeking behavior when suffering from malaria, a disease endemic to the region. Based on judged similarity between 16 illnesses that are common in the area, the author analyzes his data using Anthropac, a computer package for analysing qualitative information, to show that people closely link certain illnesses with malaria -- called the malaria cognate' by Nyamongo. The paper discusses how health-care seeking behavior among the Abagusii may be influenced by this judged similarity between malaria and other illnesses (p. 27).
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Morbidity
Pharmaceuticals
Theory of disease
Medical therapy
Medical care
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Gusii
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
2000
RegionThe area the document pertains to
Africa
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Eastern Africa
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
article
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Indigenous Person
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
4: Excellent Secondary Data
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
John Beierle ; 2005
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
no date
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
not specified
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
Suneka area, Kisi District, southwestern Kenya
NotesAdditional notes
Isaac K. Nyamongo
Includes bibliographical references (p. 33-34)
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
95642025
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Gusii (African people)