HSCI 130 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Medicine Wheel, Medicine Man, Traditional Medicine
29 Jun 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Lecture #4: experiences of health and illness in aboriginal cultures. Section 35 of the constitution act, 1982 recognizes three original peoples of canada: first nations (61%), inuit (5%), metis (32%) Each group is distinct, with a unique history. Compared to the general population, aboriginal population is: younger, rapidly increasing in size. Based on traditional ways of knowing (knowledge) Data sources of first nations traditional health systems. Written accounts of observations by european and euro-canadian: traders, missionaries, medical doctors, government personnel, anthropologists (later) Amount of traditional knowledge willingly shared with outsiders changed over time. European accounts of first nations traditional health systems. Traditions described as: primitive, fraudulent, harmful. Healers described as magicians and pretenders patients described as ignorant. Yet, europeans also described evidence of effectiveness. Overview of aboriginal disease theory (time of european contact) Every culture has own epistemology and metaphysics (nature of reality, space and time) Traditional aboriginal healing systems based on coherent, rational understandings of world.
