DIALOGUE AND THE INTERPRETATION OF ILLNESS by Robert Pool ( 9781859730164 )

Item Details

Title:

DIALOGUE AND THE INTERPRETATION OF ILLNESS
CONVERSATIONS IN A CAMEROON VILLAGE

By:

Robert Pool

Format:

Paperback

List price:

£36.99

Our price:

£33.29

Discount:

10% off

You save:

£3.70

ISBN 10:

1859730167

ISBN 13:

9781859730164

Availability:

Usually dispatched within 1-3 weeks.

Delivery rates

Stock:

Currently 0 available

Publisher:

BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING PLC

Pub. date:

11 May, 1994

Series:

Explorations in Anthropology

Pages:

298

Description:

Offers a medical anthropological exploration of traditional explanations of illness and misfortune; a detailed ethnography of traditional African cosmology and witchcraft - the context of illness explanations; and an examination of theoretical issues in anthropology - postmodernism and dialogue.

Synopsis:

The etiology of the Wimbum people in the Western Grassfields of Cameroon is described through an examination of the way in which the meanings of key concepts, used to interpret and explain illness and other forms of misfortune, are continually being produced and reproduced in the praxis of everyday communication. During the course of numerous dialogues, witchcraft, a highly ambivalent force, gradually emerges as the prime mover. As destructive cannibals or respectable elders the witches are the ultimate cause of all significant illness, misfortune and death, and as diviners they are also the ultimate judges who apportion moral responsibility. Even the ancestors and the traditional gods turn out to be fronts behind which the witches hide their activities.The study is on three levels: a medical anthropological exploration of explanations of illness and misfortune; a detailed ethnography of traditional African cosmology and witchcraft; and an examination of recent theoretical issues in anthropology such as the nature of ethnographic fieldwork and the possibility of dialogical or postmodern ethnography.

Illustrations:

black & white illustrations

Publication:

Imprint:

Berg Publishers

Returns:

Returnable

Some other items by this author:

BEYOND ENGINEERING (HB)

BEYOND ENGINEERING (PB)

BIOINFORMATICS, CONVERTING DATA TO KNOWLEDGE (PB)

BRINGING PUBLIC HEALTH INTO URBAN REVITALIZATION (PB)