Massey Documents by Type

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/294

Browse

Has files: YesSubject: search.filters.subject.Traditional medicine

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The role of traditional healing in developing rehabilitation processes and its contributions toward development : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1993) Kwok, King Yu
    The emphasis on Western ways of biomedical health care and rehabilitation has met with problems of practicability in many parts of the world, and particularly problems with those issues related to culture. Reform in rehabilitation and health care should be carried out according to the thinking of people. Being culturally acceptable with philosophies of people, traditional healing can be an invaluable means for innovative rehabilitation health care. Attention to the needs of minority groups, for example, people with disabilities and ethnic minorities, is essential. This thesis sets out a new and innovative rehabilitation model of Individual-Rehabilitation-Society for the use of traditional healing in developing rehabilitation processes. The new model is conceptualized in general systems theory and a basic needs approach. "Think globally and act locally" is the key phrase for health care and development. The contributions of traditional healing and rehabilitation toward development are also discussed.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Health : sculptured by the hands of culture : exploring the Ecuadorian worldview of health : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy of Development Studies at Massey University, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2002) Hicks, Ruth Miriam
    Worldview is at the core of our being, providing the filter that gives form to our beliefs, values and behaviour. Each culture and country has its unique perspective in such vital areas such as health and wellbeing. In the global context, where 'health for all' is more a dream than reality, the challenge is to grasp the conceptual understanding of health in each context, to dialogue with the culture, and look for creative ways of meeting health needs. This thesis is part of my journey to achieve an understanding of this, in the context of Ecuador. The essence of this study is an exploration of the Ecuadorian context. How is health conceptualised within the culture? Is there a worldview of health? Are there areas of commonality of beliefs and practices in health? What are some of the historical events and processes that have formed this way of understanding? What has the ways of seeing health in Ecuador's current context? This thesis presents the experiences and knowledge collected during five months of focussed research and two years of lived experiences in Ecuador. It is very much a journey of discovery for the researcher and participants. The research methodology gives voice to the stories of four participatory groups and five in-depth interviews, which allowed the participants to share their knowledge and experience of health. Through the process of reviewing literature on the beliefs and practices throughout various non-western systems of healing, a number of elements were found common to all. These include: the interrelated nature of the physical and spiritual realms; the concept of self and community; origins of unwellness and health seeking practices; food and food practices; syncretism and the concept of body image. The stories of the participants reveal some of their beliefs and practices of health. Despite the wealth of cultural origins, climatic and contextual variety presented in Ecuador, nine themes emerge from the participants' stories, as common to their beliefs and practices of health: nature's healers, traditional sicknesses, the path of tradition, common sicknesses and causes of death, the therapeutic route, you are well if you look happy, of divine descent but humanly frail, no health without money, the path of tradition, and an acute awareness of the state of health. Together these portray a fascinating insight into part of the Ecuadorian worldview of health.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Rongoā Māori (traditional Māori healing) through the eyes of Māori healers : sharing the healing while keeping the tapu : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2012) Mark, Glenis
    This research explores the underlying philosophies of rongoa Maori, the traditional healing system of the indigenous Maori of Aotearoa/New Zealand. The research is set within the context of worldwide traditional healing systems that involves discussion of the embedded nature of indigenous cultural values and beliefs within traditional healing practices. Parallels are drawn between the traditional healing practices of Maori and other indigenous healing traditions. The research was conducted in adherence to the principles of Kaupapa Maori research to ensure the use of Maori cultural values throughout the research process. Narrative interviews were conducted with seventeen Maori healers about their understandings of rongoa Maori. Data analysis was conducted in a three-step process using an approach created specifically for the research entitled the rourou Maori method of analysis. The analysis was inclusive of the contributions of each individual healer and the researcher to the collective story on rongoa Maori across all participants in the research. The analysis revealed nine underlying philosophies of rongoa Maori. These showed that rongoa Maori: healing is a continuous process of life; is a coconstruction of healing through the healer/client relationship; includes collaborative whakawhanaungatanga (family-like) relationships in healing; involves the synergy of the alliance between people and plants; utilises the tipuna (ancestors) as the wairua (spirits) that conduct the healing; focuses on diagnosing illness through past generations; identifies the power of emotions to create or destroy health, illness and healing; aims to facilitate change for the client; and aspires to heal Maori of colonisation and keep Maori knowledge sovereign. In this research, Maori healers indicated that aspects of Maori knowledge and wisdom have been purposely kept tapu (sacred). However, there are three major contributions to knowledge about traditional healing systems. First, new insights were presented on rongoa Maori, such as the relationship between healers and plants. Second, the contribution of rongoa Maori to the greater advancement of Maori tino rangatiratanga was discussed. Third, additional conceptualisations about traditional healing systems, such as aroha (love) in the relationship between the healer and client, were found. Rongoa Maori was shown to share several healing concepts with other traditional healing systems.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Cultural perceptions of illness in rural northeastern Thailand : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1994) Nuntaboot, Khanitta; Khanitta Nuntaboot
    In a transitional society like Northeastern Thailand, alternative and often competing therapeutic methods have been widely used by local people. Most illnesses are managed without recourse to the Government health care services. In Thailand there is a paucity of studies which explore and develop an understanding of how rural people regard illness in terms of causes and classification and how this knowledge influences what actions they take to deal with it. The impact of medical pluralism on illness management has rarely been studied in this country. The purpose of this study is to provide an understanding of the cultural meanings of illness for people in rural Northeast Thailand and their behaviour regarding health and illness care. An ethnographic approach, employing participant observation, interviews and ethnographic records, was selected as the research method, with fieldwork carried out in one rural village in Northeast Thailand where the researcher lived for 12 months. The findings suggest that what people do during an illness is guided by their healing knowledge which is experiential in nature. Mutual influences exist between people's beliefs about illness and their experiences of illness and healing methods. The experiential healing knowledge encompasses broad illness categories and beliefs in multiple causes of an illness. Multiple healing methods including both Western medicine and village curing methods are applied in any illness situation. Western medicine is believed to be effective to treat disease which is viewed as one part of illness, while village curing is believed to effectively treat other causes of illness as well as disease. Kin and neighbours actively participate in the articulation of illness situations, being involved in diagnosing the illness and identifying and prioritising multiple therapeutic management options. This description of people's perceptions of illness and its management, generated from the data, is crucial to increasing the knowledge base of members of nursing and other health professions. Such knowledge identifies critical aspects and possibilities for change in the practice of health professionals when working with rural people in Northeast Thailand. The study concludes with a discussion of strategies for practice and education which might be applied by nurses and other health professionals to improve the utilisation of available health care services.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Crossing the sea : narratives of exile and illness among Cambodian refugees in New Zealand : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Social Anthropology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1995) North, Nicola H.; North, Nicola H.
    Cambodian refugees have settled in many countries of the West, including New Zealand. Cambodian refugees are consistently described as the most traumatised of Southeast Asian refugees; hence they are expected upon resettlement to be in special need of health care, which host countries must provide. Most Cambodians from rural areas have had little prior experience with Western-type health care, having employed mainly local (rural Cambodian) healing techniques, supplemented with a range of available Western and Asian medicines, in an environment of medical pluralism. Using the ethnographic method, this three year study set out to determine illness experiences of resettled Cambodian refugees, and to interpret experiences in the contexts of the events that led to their fleeing Cambodia, the trauma of the flight itself, and the process of resettlement in an unfamiliar nation, geographically and culturally far distant from home. Theories that Cambodians hold regarding the origins, progress, and preferred treatments of illness are described. Experiences of seeking health care from New Zealand's biomedically based health services are presented, and complementary health-care practices such as Cambodian self-care and alternative medicines are identified. Adult Cambodian who have survived severe deprivation, atrocities and profound loss often suffer serious ill health. Ill health is both cause and consequence of inability to acquire new skills and education, low facility in English, unemployment and poverty. For adults caught in the cycle of illness and poverty, social interaction is primarily with other Cambodians. A Cambodian sub-society on the margins of mainstream society has emerged, in which, among other things, healing practices are carried out. Cambodian refugees show no reluctance to use Western medicine, and little desire to employ Cambodian medicine, which in any case is now largely unavailable. While some Cambodians suffer from diseases that appear amenable to Western medical diagnoses and treatments, others have been found to suffer intractable, often painful illnesses for which no biomedical explanation could be found. In such cases, the sufferers themselves offered explanations for their illnesses, drawing from Cambodian theories of illness, and personal life experiences, in doing so. However, some serious illnesses experienced by Cambodian refugees fit neither Cambodian nor Western biomedical disease categories. A result of exile is that familiar Cambodian systems of healing are no longer relevant, and at the same time, conditions of exile and transition cast doubt on former theories of illness, leading to a search both for understanding and for healing. Employing Cambodian self-care techniques together with Western and Asian medicines, resettled Cambodians are actively creating a transitional system of healing appropriate to their transitional status. Hard, solitary intellectual labour ("thinking too much") is a central process by means of which exiled Cambodians struggle to regain control of their shattered lives. The development of a new system of healing is part of the global process of hybridization of cultures, accelerated by massive transnational migration. To depict both the danger and the generativity of the transformations of which Cambodian refugees are both agents and subjects, the study concludes by borrowing a Cambodian metaphor for giving birth: "crossing the river." Cambodians consider women post-childbirth to be weakened and vulnerable to illness, cold and wind; while the child is newly born into humanity, the mother too is reborn into a new social status. Refugees who have literally crossed the sea to settle in a new country are undergoing a similar rebirth.