Group 3

Health and the

Society
Health is a state of physical, mental and social well-being. It is the
absence of disease or pain but it does not mean that in the absence of
disease, a person is healthy. According to World Health Organization
(WHO), better health is central to human happiness and well-being. It
also makes an important contribution to economic progress, as healthy
populations live longer-they are more productive and happy. People are
the wealth of the nation; they are the drivers towards progress and
development. To advance in life and reap the advantages of this
development, what we need is good health.
Ethnomedicine also known as the study of cross-cultural health system. This
process is known even during the early days of anthropology. A health
system encompasses many areas: perceptions and classifications of health
problems, prevention measures, diagnosis, healing (magical, religious,
scientific, healing substances), and healers.

Ethnomedicine has extended its emphasis and included topics such as

perceptions of the body, culture and disability, and change in indigenous or
“traditional” healing systems, especially as resulting from globalization.
The well-known Contemporary Western Biomedicine (WBM), a process of
healing which is based on modern Western science that emphasizes
technology in diagnosing and treating health problems related to the human
body. This system is a type of ethnomedicine.
Medical anthropologists now study WBM as a cultural system intimately
bound to Western values. Thus, the current meaning of the term
ethnomedicine health encompasses systems everywhere.
 Culture-Specific
Syndrome and Illness
A culture-bound syndrome,
culture-specific syndrome or
folk illness is a combination of
psychiatric and somatic
symptoms that are considered
to be a recognizable disease
only within a specific society or
tribe. The disease is not known
or believed in other society or
tribe.
A Culture-Specific Syndrome is
characterized by:
1 Classification as a disease in the culture;
2 Widespread familiarity in the culture;
Complete lack of familiarity or misunderstanding of the
3
condition to people in other cultures;
No objectively demonstrable biochemical or tissue
4
abnormalities (signs);
5 The condition is usually recognized and treated by the
folk medicine of the culture.
KURU
It is a fatal culture specific disease of
the brain and nervous system that is
found in South Fore (Fore are people
who live in Okapa District of the
Eastern Highlands Province in Papua
New Guinea).
KURU
Symptoms of Kuru are palsy, contracted face
muscles, loss of motor control resulting to the
inability to walk and eventually even eat. Kuru
victims become increasingly thin. The people of
South Fore call this disease a “trembling sickness”
and “laughing sickness”; death occurs within six
to twelve months of the start of the symptoms.
Yani, 4 years old, the youngest
Most of the victims are women in 20’s and 30’s. KURU patient, 1957
An American pediatrician named
Carleton Gajdusek went to Papua
New Guinea in the late 1950’s and
tried to research for the solution.
Through the use of microscopic
examination he found out that the
disease organism was carried in the
blood and was concentrated in
brain tissue. And the means of
transmission was through Carleton Gajdusek and Vincent Zigas examining
a child kuru victim, Okapa, 1957
cannibalism.
 Beliefs in the
Philippines
SUMPA
PASMA NAMALIGNO
& GABA
PASMA is an interaction of hot and cold. It is defined as an “exposure
illness” which occurs when a condition considered to be “hot” is attacked
by a “cold” element and vice versa (Tan 2008).

In the case of post-partum syndrome or colloquially known among Filipinos as

nabaliw, the cold element settles in the head causing post-partum depression.
This is not different from the yin and yang of the Chinese people they believe
that there must be a balance of nature.
Another is SUMPA and GABA, sumpa is a swearword inflicted
by a person while gaba is a curse given by a divine being and
usually God or Bathala. It is believed that gaba inflicted to the
family by a god due to some abuses done by their ancestors to
their community. Sumpa and Gaba are not far different from
the karma of the Buddhists.
NAMAMALIGNO is a widespread belief in the Philippines. It
is a belief that a disease is caused by a supernatural or a
mystical being.

In the Philippines these beliefs on namaligno, gaba, sumpa and pasma are
very popular not only in the rural areas but also in the cities. Sometimes
this hinders the medicine world in intervening with the patient’s
medication. This is because people cannot get away with traditions and
beliefs passed on by ancestors.
Thank
You