Professional Documents
Culture Documents
POLOGY
Mtuya, c.
Medical sociology
• Provides a wider, societal frame of reference, t
hat addresses why certain groups are more vul
nerable and less well treated than others in a
given social system.
• Explores “… how diseases could be differentl
y understood, treated and experienced by de
monstrating how disease is a product of social
organisation rather than, nature, biology or in
dividual lifestyle choices” White (2002) (p. 4)
Anthropology
• Spiritualists
• Fortune tellers
Folk or Traditional Sector
• Healer who are Sacred or Secular or mixture of the t
wo at the temple or home
• They are not part of the official medical system
• The occupy the intermediate position between the p
opular and professionals
• Types: midwives, tooth extractor, herbalist, spiritual
healers, shamans, voodoo.
• Deal with illness believed to be due to sorcery, divine
punishment, eg curses etc
• They are familiar with culture, beliefs and the world v
iew of communities
The Professional sector
• Known as biomedicine
• Organized legally sanctioned healing profession
• Comprises of physician and paramedical profession n
urses, midwives, physiotherapist
• Highly expensive, scarce providers, reach small propo
rtion of population, urban based
• Health care system are dominated by country‘s poli
tical ideology
• Health as basic right VS commonity to be bought
• Physician-centred,Process-oriented, Cridential-orient
ed,Not wholistic.
The Popular Sector
• 70-90%.Lay, non-professional, non- specialist domain o
f society.
• First ill health is recognized and defined.
• Therapeutic options done without consulting folk or pro
fessionals, Self treatment, self medication,
• Advice or treatment by relatives/Family, neighbour, frie
nd or workmate or person experienced the same proble
m
• Informal an unpaid healing realtionships, with extensive
expereince of a certain life events (women raised many
children), spouses of health providers.
References
1. Neeraja, KP.(2006) Textbook of Sociology for Nursing studen
ts first edition Jaypee Brothers medical publishers.