L48 Anthro 3283 Chapter 8: Fadiman Ch. 8 (93-105)
Fadiman Ch. 8 (93-105)
• Fadiman meeting the Lees
• Hmong don’t distinguish between mental and physical problems; they are all spiritual
• Sukey, psychologist, understands the Hmong; said that even though there were thousands
of Hmong in Merced, not one American spoke English
• May Ying – cultural broker; with May by her side, she was not an official or someone
who would tell them what to do
• Lees needed less status; Americans made them feel as their family didn’t count as much;
like they were belittled
• Pog – how May addressed Foua, connoting respect and intimacy
• Fadiman, May, and Foua started to develop a more intimate relationship
o Lees unhesitantly granted Fadiman access to Lia’s health records
• She looked at the records at saw that the doctor’s diagnoses were untranslatable, which
would mean very little to the Lees
o Lees did not tell time in the same way that hospital record-keepers did; years were
not identified by a number, but as an event
o 1982 – year Lia got sick
o 1985 – year Lia became government property
o when referred to times of the day would use Hmong phrases
• Lees told her everything she asked, but also so they could tell her about Hmong culture
so she could understand their way and explain it to others
• Foua wants doctors to believe in their neeb (healing spirit); doctors can fix some
sicknesses that involve body and blood, but for us Hmong some people get sick because
of their soul, so they need spiritual things
• Nao Kao believes this is why some doctors cannot effectively treat their sickness; this
young man hated the doctors, because the only way to cure that kind of sickness was to
sacrifice a dog
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