For my Honors project, I decided to focus on Chapter 11 which revolves around Culture and Health. The part of this chapter that specifically influenced my project was between page 255 and 257 which explored general ideas of health that differed between cultures. These big ideas focused on how cultures define the concept of health and how cultures combat illnesses. My project combines these two important concepts from the point of view of cultures I have personally been involved with through my friends to see their beliefs and remedy choices for the common cold.
The first culture I took on the personality of is Peru. Contrary to many Western influenced cultures, Peruvians believe that the body, mind and soul are influenced by nature. This means that they follow a holistic approach to health which is proven to be true by their preferred choice of remedies. For the remedy section, I asked my friend for any interesting remedies she personally uses and the only thing that surprised me was the fact that they use alcohol to sleep. Considering the nature that Hispanics sometimes believe alcohol invites evil into your body, I was almost surprised that she said that! Then, I remembered that since Hispanic cultures also believe that the common cold should be combated with ‘hot’ remedies. Hence the choice of alcohol, along with herbs, tea, soup, and rest to achieve good health again. Finally, Peruvian culture believes that pretty much any illness is serious because of their focus on the body being one with nature.
For the second culture, I explored the beliefs of the Pakistani culture. To my surprise, Pakistani’s don’t believe that illnesses are a big deal. I figured that since a lot of people is Pakistan, like my friend, are very spiritual since they are Muslim, that they would treat an illness as a more serious situation. I think that because of the region my friend is from in Pakistan, she in more Western influenced than others. Because of this influence, their choice of remedies followed along the lines of Americans’, resting and taking medication. One thing that was interesting came from their belief of causes of the common cold. Some people believe that it can be caused by ‘evil eye’ which is the believe that one can cast harm upon another by giving them a glare and passing on a malevolent spirit.
For the third culture, American, I took from my personal experiences with sickness as a comparison to my friends’ cultures. First, since American is a medically advanced society, we pretty much all have been taught that illnesses are caused by pathogens and germs. The typical treatment for a cold is rest, over the counter medicines such as NyQuil, tea, orange juice or vitamin c, and soup. This is due to the nature of America’s medical advancements. We have ingrained the idea of using remedies that have been proven by science and don’t think twice about chemically manufactured medicines. Since this has proven to ben helpful, Americans don’t really think much about being sick and in some cases will even disregard the safety of others to continue on with their lives when struck with an illness.
The next culture, from Madagascar was my favorite to learn about. It’s interesting because they believe that the common cold is caused by pathogens and germs but prefer to approach illnesses with holistic remedies. Illnesses are not seen as a big idea either. My friend credited this to their relationship with nature. Malagasy people specifically use Madagascar periwinkle along with other plants and herbs to easily combat illnesses.
The last culture pretty much encompasses all of the other cultures discussed above. Ethiopians credit the common cold to pathogens, germs, and even sometimes to spirits. Their remedies include herbs, hot liquids, soup, and interestingly garlic honey. Just like Peruvians, colds are treated as a cold illness so its combated with hot remedies. The holistic approach also involves their relation to the natural world and even spiritual to combat the bad spirits which have potentially caused the illness in the first place. Just like a majority of the other cultures explored, Ethiopians don’t fret when combating the common cold.
Overall, I was really surprised to see that a lot of the cultures didn’t think a cold is a big deal. I can admit that I had a bias because their native countries don’t have as good of a medical system as America does but I was definitely proven wrong. I understand why the Peruvian culture does indeed believe a cold is a big deal because my family sometimes credits illnesses to some malicious nature. Something that was not surprising is the fact that all of the cultures I focused on had the idea to combat a cold with hot remedies. This makes me believe that in some ways medicinal practices have become universal. I hope that in the future, Americans will take time to learn from other cultures and utilize more natural remedies for illnesses.
