L48 Anthro 3283 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Child Protective Services, Ban Vinai Refugee Camp, Language Barrier
Fadiman Ch. 6 (60-77)
• It was said in refugee camps in Thailand that the Hmong in America could not find work,
were forbidden to practice their religion, and were robbed and beaten by gangs; It was
also said that the Hmong women were forced into slavery, forced to have sex with the
American men, and forced to have sex with animals
• Dinosaurs, ogres, giants lived in America
• Then why did 15,000 Hmong who gathered at the Ban Vinai soccer field to voice their
deepest fears about life in the United States, chose to fixate on doctors?
• Hmong view of Healthcare was opposite of American one, which was separated into
smaller and smaller subspecialties; Hmong carried holism; Hmong preoccupation with
medical issues was nothing less than a preoccupation with life
• Hmong man would come in with a stomachache saying that the entire universe was out of
balance; doctors frequently failed to satisfy their Hmong patients
• Doctors could hardly respect their patient’s system of health beliefs, since the medical
schools never informed them that diseases are caused by fugitive souls and cured by
jugulated chickens
o None of them had a single hour of instruction in cross-cultural medicine
o To most of them, Hmong taboos of modern medicine, seemed like ignorance
o What the doctors viewed as clinical efficiency, the Hmong viewed as arrogance
• Some Hmong, thought doctors favored, the rich, that they only wanted to study their
bodies not the problem, would ignore you, thinks that they know nothing because they
are a refugee
o All of these people speak English, and thus belong to the most educated and most
Americanized Hmong in Merced – the people most likely to understand and value
Western medical care
• Hmong view the hospital as a dreaded last resort to be hazarded only when all else fails
• In the early 1980s, when they were admitted to the hospital, they brought their own food
and medicines; sometimes wanted to slaughter live animals in the hospital
• Neil and Peggy called Child Protective Services for child abuse; before the case was
prosecuted the learned that the lesions on the child were the result of dermal treatments –
rubbing the skin with coins or igniting alcohol-soaked cotton under a tiny cut to create a
vacuum – traditional healing art among Asian ethnic groups
• High stakes if doctors made a tactical error in dealing with the Hmong
• Doctors would appear disrespectful if attended to a young girl rather than an old man;
also disrespectful if tried to maintain friendly eye contact, touched the head of an adult
without permission, or beckoned with a crooked finger; would also lose respect if didn’t
act like authority figures
• Doctors could get in trouble if didn’t take Hmong’s religious beliefs into account; don’t
put someone in psych ward just because they have weird religious beliefs
• Compared to other patients, the Hmong were not only trickier, but sicker
• Before receiving clearance to enter the U.S., they need to be free of 8 contagious diseases
and 8 mental conditions; the exams are easy to do; no screening for mental conditions
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