Medicine and Morality in Haiti The Contest for Healing Power [Paperback]

A study of how medicine and morality in rural Haiti are shaped both by local religious traditions and by biomedical and folk medical practices.People who become ill in rural Haiti may seek treatment from western doctors, herbalists or religious leaders. Examining the decisions guiding such choices, this study considers moral issues arising in a society where suffering is associated with guilt and conflicting ethical systems coexist.People who become ill in rural Haiti may seek treatment from western doctors, herbalists or religious leaders. Examining the decisions guiding such choices, this study considers moral issues arising in a society where suffering is associated with guilt and conflicting ethical systems coexist.Medicine and morality in rural Haiti are shaped both by different local religious traditions and by biomedical and folk medicine practices. People who become ill may seek treatment from Western doctors, but also from herbalists and religious leaders. This study examines the decisions guiding such choices, and considers moral issues arising in a society where suffering is associated with guilt but where different, sometimes conflicting, ethical systems coexist. It also reveals how in the crisis of illness people rework religious identities and are forced to address fundamental social and political problems.Part I. History and Ethnography of Biomedicine: 2. Metropolitan medicine and strategies of rule; 3. Biomedicine in Jeanty; 4. Medicalization and illness experience: two case studies; Part II. The Moral Discourse of Medical Pluralism: 5. The Catholic practice of healing; 6. Houngan and the limits to Catholic morality; 7. Religious healing and the fragmentation of rural life; 8. Conclusion.