Journal of Undergraduate Research
Keywords
infant mortality, Asante, Ghana, health, healing, religion, culture
College
Family, Home, and Social Sciences
Department
Anthropology
Abstract
Among the Asante people of central Ghana, health and healing are conceptualized quite differently than the western biomedical model. Religious cosmology has special significance in relation to healing. Health is thought of holistically; every illness is a product of physical, spiritual, emotional, and cosmological forces. Illnesses manifest themselves in the body, but unlike the biomedical view of health, it is not the bodily affliction that is the root of the problem. In order to cure a disease, the true cause must be discovered and resolved. Although many of the traditional beliefs have been pushed out or reduced by the growing use of biomedicine, western pharmaceuticals, as well as by outside religions such as Christianity and Islam, many of the traditional ideas of medicine and health still operate in society.
Recommended Citation
Matos, Adriana and Olsen, Dr. William
(2013)
"Cultural Components of Infant Mortality in Asante, Ghana,"
Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 2013:
Iss.
1, Article 110.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jur/vol2013/iss1/110