Ambiguity, synecdoche and affect in semai medicine

Semai descriptions of their beliefs about health and disease vary from person to person. Moreover, at different times the same person expresses mutually incongruent beliefs. This amorphousness and fluidity merit analysis rather than neatening. This paper details Semai beliefs, loose ends and all, an...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inSocial science & medicine (1982) Vol. 27; no. 8; pp. 857 - 877
Main Author Dentan, Robert Knox
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England Elsevier Ltd 1988
Elsevier
SeriesSocial Science & Medicine
Subjects
Affect
Beliefs
cognition
Cross-Cultural Comparison
egalitarian society
egalitarian society cognition Semai Senoi medical beliefs
Ethnic Groups
Humans
Magic
Malaysia
medical beliefs
Medicine, Traditional
Mental Healing
Semai people
Semai Senoi
Sick Role
Traditional medicine
Malaysia
medical beliefs
cognition
egalitarian society
Semai Senoi
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Semai descriptions of their beliefs about health and disease vary from person to person. Moreover, at different times the same person expresses mutually incongruent beliefs. This amorphousness and fluidity merit analysis rather than neatening. This paper details Semai beliefs, loose ends and all, and suggests that their formal peculiarities are due to the prevalence of synecdoche in conceptual organization. Their inconsistency and fluidity may stem from individualistic egalitarianism within Semai society and powerlessness in the face of nonSemai attack. Finally, it is suggested that construing indigenous medicine as a crude form of Western medicine leads to overtidiness and consequent error.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:0277-9536
1873-5347
DOI:10.1016/0277-9536(88)90237-7