UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Medical anthropology: essays and reflections from an Amsterdam graduate programme van der Geest, S.; Gerrits, T.; Challinor, J. Publication date 2014 Document Version Final published version Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): van der Geest, S., Gerrits, T., & Challinor, J. (2014). Medical anthropology: essays and reflections from an Amsterdam graduate programme. (Health, culture and society). AMB. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. 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UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:09 Feb 2023 health, Culture and SoCiety h health, Culture and SoCiety e StudieS in mediCal anthropoloGy and SoCioloGy al StudieS in mediCal anthropoloGy and SoCioloGy t h , c u l t u r e This volume is a collection of twenty articles by graduates of the Amsterdam & MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY Master’s in Medical Anthropology (AMMA) at the University of Amsterdam. soc ie The university is known for outstanding and innovative work in the field ty of medical anthropology and a teaching approach that combines a strong essays and reflections from an ethnographic basis with thorough theoretical grounding. amsterdam graduate programme More than two hundred students from across the world graduated from the AMMA programme, which resulted in a global network of medical anthropologists working in a wide range of positions in their respective societies. When the AMMA programme ended in 2012, some staff and alumni decided to mark the occasion by publishing a book with essays and information about the AMMA programme, which resulted in this edited M volume. All contributions are based on the authors’ exemplary master theses E and provide a glimpse of the diversity of the students’ backgrounds, interests, D I fieldwork and theoretical approaches. The articles address experiences C A of health and illness, sexuality, violence, drug use, local healing, body and L embodiment, children’s perspectives on health and body, self-harm, gender, A N obesity, autism, older people, nurses and homecare, reproductive decision- T making, parenthood, HIV/AIDS, treatment choices, hospital ethnography, H R meditation, body techniques, intersubjectivity, illness vocabularies, and O hygiene and dirt. The essays are organized in seven themes: Wellness and P O Illness, Treatment and Efficacy, Gender and Parenthood, Care and Autonomy, L O Children’s Worlds, Body and Subjectivity, and Research and Theory. This G collection of essays responds to a growing interest in ethnographic fieldwork Y as a didactic tool in learning qualitative research methodology and self- reflection. The reader will find inspiration from the articles and evidence of the critical importance of a medical-anthropological approach to investigating health and illness in any setting worldwide. Sjaak van der Geest was lecturer and dean of the AMMA programme at the University of Amsterdam. &S TJaunrludia de idCei thGeade lmlrirnaitonsry w AisaM sa MlgercAat udthrueearst eea sno.df AdMireMctAor at AMMA. ISBN 9789A0M B7 9P7u0b0l is6h5e r3s J. C (editors)hallinor . G, t. G vandereeSterritS Stj(eurjdaluiiadtakoi e Crv sGah)nae lrdlreinirtoS GreeSt AMB AMB MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY Published in this series: Anja Krumeich The blessings of motherhood. Health, pregnancy and child care in Dominica Sjaak van der Geest, Paul ten Have, Gerhard Nijhof, Piet Verbeek-Heida (red.) De macht der dingen. Medische technologie in cultureel perspectief Cor Hoffer Islamitische genezers en hun patiënten. Gezondheidszorg, religie en zingeving Peter Ventevogel Whiteman’s things. Training and detraining healers in Ghana Ria Reis Sporen van ziekte. Medische pluraliteit en epilepsie in Swaziland Anne Reeler Money and friendship. Modes of empowerment in Thai Health Care Joke Haafkens Rituals of silence. Long-term tranquilizer use by women in the Netherlands Michael Tan Good medicine: Pharmaceuticals and the construction of power and knowledge in the Philippines Sylvie Fainzang Of malady and misery. An African perspective on European illness Marian Potting Van je familie... Zorg, familie en sekse in de mantelzorg Jessica Mesman Ervaren pioniers. Omgaan met twijfel in de intensive care voor pasgeborenen Robert Pool Dialogue and the interpretation of illness. Conversations in a Cameroon village Sjaak van der Geest & Ria Reis (eds.) Ethnocentrism. Reflections on medical anthropology Winny Koster Secret strategies. Women and abortion in Yoruba society, Nigeria Shahaduz Zaman Broken limbs, broken lives. Ethnography of a hospital ward in Bangladesh Francine van den Borne Trying to survive in times of poverty and aids. Women and multiple partner sex in Malawi Helle Max Martin Nursing contradictions. Ideals and improvisation in Uganda Miranda van Reeuwijk Because of temptations: Children, sex and hiv/aids in Tanzania Rebekah Park & Sjaak van der Geest (eds.) Doing and living medical anthropology. Personal reflections HEALTH, CULTURE and SOCIETY STUDIESin MEDICALANTHROPOLOGYand SOCIOLOGY MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY ESSAYS AND REFLECTIONS FROM AN AMSTERDAM GRADUATE PROGRAMME SJAAK VAN DER GEEST TRUDIE GERRITS JULIA CHALLINOR (editors) AMB Diemen 2014 This book is dedicated to all AMMA teachers and alumni (1997-2012) ISBN 97890 79700 65 3 © 2014, Amsterdam - Sjaak Van Der Geest, Trudie Gerrits, Julia Challinor – The Authors No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without a written permission of the copyright owner. Cover: Van Marum Graphics Cover picture: Ogi inspecting a flat tire in Bosnia by Selma Tanovic. “Ogi suddenly stopped: he saw a parked car, an old and ragged abandoned VW Golf 2. His eyes sparkled in amusement. He approached it slowly, walked several times around it, as it was a precious art piece in a museum. He touched the half blown tires on its wheels, its rusted bumpers, and its broken door handles. Then he pressed his nose and his cheek to a dirty window, inspecting the interior. This was what he did every time he saw a car that he liked.” (An excerpt from Selma Tanovic’s fieldnotes), Series lay-out design: Hanneke Kossen †, Amsterdam AMB Publishers, P.O. Box 7, 1110 AA DIEMEN, The Netherlands – www.amb-press.nl Table of contents Preface by ANITA HARDON ix AMMA’s Logo by SJAAK VAN DER GEEST xi Introduction: Essays in Medical Anthropology and the AMMA experience 1 by SJAAK VAN DER GEEST, TRUDIE GERRITS, JULIA CHALLINOR, & RIA REIS  Wellness and Illness SANJAY AGGARWAL 15 A ‘Gay Paradise’? Exploring adverse mental health outcomes among gay men in the Netherlands MICHELLE ALLPORT 29 Women’s suffering: Teaching psychological violence in Mexico City ALICE LAROTONDA 43 The ‘imperfect child’: Parents’ expectations disrupted by the birth of an infant with a rare disease NAVARAJ UPADHAYA 55 Nepalese adolescents’ perspectives on local vocabulary, types and meanings of distress NGUYEN TRAN LAM 67 Injecting drug users and sexual relationships in Vietnam  Treatment and Efficacy SASITORN CHAIPRASITTI 87 Body and bone: Cultural embodiment in Northern Thai bone healing SARA BREWER 105 An anti-addiction drug? Reflections on efficacy and safety issues within the Ibogaine subculture  Gender and Parenthood MONICA RODRIGUEZ GARCIA 121 “HIV-positive women shouldn’t make children just like that.” When a right becomes ‘acceptable but not advisable’ in Maputo, Mozambique MARIANA RIOS SANDOVAL 135 Practicing engaged fatherhood: Conversations with men in Mexico City  Care and Autonomy MARÍA FERNANDA OLARTE SIERRA 147 Between patient, doctor and machine: Nursing in a Dutch intensive care unit DAVID KYADDONDO 161 Controlled freedom: Contradictions in the ideals and practices of Dutch home-care nurses BARBARA HAHN 177 “Now I want to look after myself.” An ethnographic account of elderly women’s reasons for moving to an old-age home in Kerala, India  Children’s Worlds MARIETTE DERWIG 195 “Being fat is more a social problem than a health problem.” Giving voice to children with overweight MAISIE DAGAPIOSO 205 Moving on. Street children, agency and well-being in Mindanao, the Philippines: Twelve years after the research MIRANDA VAN REEUWIJK 223 Children’s ideas and practices concerning hygiene and disease transmission: Exploration in a rural town in Benin  Body and Subjectivity SELMA TANOVIC 241 The body as a mediator of intersubjectivity in children with autism: A qualitative phenomenological study in Sarajevo, Bosnia ZOE GOLDSTEIN 257 Inside out: Some thoughts on issues related to self-harm and young people’s experience of their bodies NASIMA SELIM 265 What does sitting have to do with the self? Body techniques, personhood and well-being in Vipassana meditation  Research and Theory JULIA CHALLINOR 285 Teacher / paediatric nurse becomes medical anthropologist: Outsider and mistrusted SERA L. YOUNG 295 Critical Ecological Medical Anthropology: Selecting and applying theory to anaemia during pregnancy on Pemba, Zanzibar  In memory of Pieter Streefland 333 Els van Dongen 335 Lily Zakiah Munir 339  Appendices List of AMMA students by year of course 345 Group pictures 1997-2012 348 List of teachers 356 List of all theses 357 Index 373