IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v55y2002i3p403-413.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Medical syncretism with reference to malaria in a Tanzanian community

Author

Listed:
  • Hausmann Muela, Susanna
  • Muela Ribera, Joan
  • Mushi, Adiel K.
  • Tanner, Marcel

Abstract

What happens when new health information is introduced into a community? We have explored this question in a semi-rural community of Southeastern Tanzania whose population has been in contact with biomedicine for many decades. With the example of malaria, we illustrate how biomedical knowledge transmitted in health messages coexists, interacts and merges with local pre-existing ideas and logics. The results are syncretic models, which may deviate considerably from what health promoters intended to transmit. Some of those may have implications for treatment of malaria, which may include delay in seeking treatment and non-compliance with therapy. Analysing this medical syncretism clearly demonstrates that even if comprehension of health messages is accurate, the way in which people interpret these messages may not be. Disentangling syncretic processes permits us to understand the dynamics of how information is processed by the recipients, and provides orientations for health promoters for adapting messages to the local context.

Suggested Citation

  • Hausmann Muela, Susanna & Muela Ribera, Joan & Mushi, Adiel K. & Tanner, Marcel, 2002. "Medical syncretism with reference to malaria in a Tanzanian community," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 55(3), pages 403-413, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:55:y:2002:i:3:p:403-413
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(01)00179-4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. World Bank, 2006. "Timor-Leste Health Sector Review : Appendices," World Bank Publications - Reports 14898, The World Bank Group.
    2. Giovannini, Peter & Reyes-García, Victoria & Waldstein, Anna & Heinrich, Michael, 2011. "Do pharmaceuticals displace local knowledge and use of medicinal plants? Estimates from a cross-sectional study in a rural indigenous community, Mexico," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(6), pages 928-936, March.
    3. World Bank, 2006. "Timor-Leste Health Sector Review : Meeting Challenges and Improving Health Outcomes," World Bank Publications - Reports 14897, The World Bank Group.
    4. World Bank, 2005. "Health Service Delivery and Utilization in Timor-Leste : A Qualitative Study," World Bank Publications - Reports 12461, The World Bank Group.
    5. Kamat, Vinay R., 2006. ""I thought it was only ordinary fever!" cultural knowledge and the micropolitics of therapy seeking for childhood febrile illness in Tanzania," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(12), pages 2945-2959, June.
    6. World Bank, 2005. "Health Service Delivery and Utilization in Timor-Leste : A Qualitative Study," World Bank Publications - Reports 8257, The World Bank Group.
    7. Dunn, Christine E. & Le Mare, Ann & Makungu, Christina, 2011. "Malaria risk behaviours, socio-cultural practices and rural livelihoods in southern Tanzania: Implications for bednet usage," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(3), pages 408-417, February.
    8. Mukolo, Abraham & Cooil, Bruce & Victor, Bart, 2015. "The effects of utility evaluations, biomedical knowledge and modernization on intention to exclusively use biomedical health facilities among rural households in Mozambique," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 225-233.
    9. Thomas De HOOP & Luuk Van KEMPEN, 2010. "Trust In Health Providers As A Catalyst For Malaria Prevention: Heterogeneous Impacts Of Health Education In Rural Ghana," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 48(3), pages 376-404, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:55:y:2002:i:3:p:403-413. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.