Rubbish sick and the dancing devil

Illness, alterity, and narrative sensemaking in Vanuatu

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2261684
AutoresJ P Taylor (0000-0002-0931-5215, School of Humanities and Social Science La Trobe University, autor correspondente)
Ano2023
Volume50
Fascículo4
Páginas656-667
Data de publicação2023-11-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAmerican Ethnologist (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0094-0496 • E-ISSN: 1548-1425
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/amet.13222
OpenAlexW4387097663
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas3
Referências citadas53

How are the historically fraught contexts of alterity that define postcolonial settings generated and negotiated in the context of medical uncertainty? What role does narrative play in the lived experience of such uncertainty and alterity? Focusing on a single "diagnostic odyssey" of childhood illness, this article examines the relationship between chronic uncertainty, alterity, and narrative sensemaking in the highly dynamic and pluralistic healthcare setting of Vanuatu. It demonstrates how close examination of cultural metaphors relating to sickness can reveal deep insights into the lived experience of illness, health seeking, and caregiving. In doing so, it highlights the role of narrative in rendering otherwise unfathomable circumstances sensible on cultural and existential terms, including by engendering a sense of intersubjective stability in the face of trauma

Aesthetics · Alterity · Art · Context (archaeology · Epistemology · Existentialism · Literature · Narrative · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · History · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts · Philosophy · Psychology