NUTR-2160 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: American Majority, Biomedicine, Faith Healing
19 May 2019
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Document Summary
Biomedicine: the conventional system of health care in the united states. Categories of traditional health beliefs and practices can be based upon: Etiology of illness-due to personal, natural, social, or supernatural causes. Cures employed- the use of magico-religious interventions, use of therapeutic substances, or physical forces. Each cultural group has a unique outlook on life, based on a common understanding and ranking of values. Individual may seem indifferent in terminal illness due to belief in reincarnation. One"s belief in faith healing may contradict health care recommendations. One may believe preservation of life is mandated; denial of sustaining care is murderous. Person may feel it is a practitioner decision rather than a family decision. Biomedicine is a cultural subdivision of the american majority worldview. Cultural imposition is the tendency for health care providers to enforce their beliefs, practices, and values upon clients. The belief is that health care professional"s ideas are superior to those of another person or group.
