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Urban Folk Medicine: A Functional Overview
Author(s) -
Press Irwin
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1978.80.1.02a00050
Subject(s) - acculturation , folk medicine , socioeconomic status , identity (music) , sociology , exploratory research , ethnology , anthropology , history , medicine , traditional medicine , aesthetics , art , ethnic group , demography , population
Social and economic functions of folk illness and folk medicine are fairly well known for rural contexts but still lack codification for urban milieus. In this exploratory paper, folk health practices are examined in terms of their response to urban socioeconomic characteristics. Such practices appear to serve functions of acculturation, guilt displacement resulting from failure to achieve, and subgroup identity maintenance, among others. Folk practices are resilient, readily shifting to adjunct functions of healing under pressure from effective modern medical and welfare systems . [medical anthropology, urban anthropology, curanderismo, ethnology, health]