Health, Culture and Society
https://hcs.pitt.edu/ojs/hcs
<strong><em>Health, Culture and Society </em></strong><em>has ceased publication, and this site is no longer accepting submissions.</em>University Library System, University of Pittsburghen-USHealth, Culture and Society2161-6590<p>Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:</p><ol><li>The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.</li><li>Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.</li><li>The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a <a title="CC-BY" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License</a> or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:<ol type="a"><li>Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;</li></ol>with the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.</li><li>The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.</li><li>Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.</li><li>Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.</li><li>The Author represents and warrants that:<ol type="a"><li>the Work is the Author’s original work;</li><li>the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;</li><li>the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;</li><li>the Work has not previously been published;</li><li>the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and</li><li>the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.</li></ol></li><li>The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.</li></ol><p><span style="font-size: 75%;">Revised 7/16/2018. Revision Description: Removed outdated link. </span></p>THINK PIECE: Reflecting on Medical Anthropology in Aotearoa New Zealand
https://hcs.pitt.edu/ojs/hcs/article/view/241
In considering what makes New Zealand unique for medical anthropological focus, this think piece sets out four themes. These reflect New Zealand’s particular historical, political, social and cultural landscape, and reveal the relevance of local scholarship for wider global debates about health. By tracing the neoliberal reform of state healthcare, indigenous approaches to wellbeing, local cultural practices of health, and the complex ethics involved in health and illness, this paper spotlights the opportunities that New Zealand medical anthropology affords us for addressing the important health and wellbeing challenges that we face today.C. Trundle
Copyright (c) 2017 Health, Culture and Society
2017-12-082017-12-08818910.5195/hcs.2017.241Unsettling the (presumed) settled: Contents and Discontents of Contraception in Aotearoa New Zealand
https://hcs.pitt.edu/ojs/hcs/article/view/243
In January 2017, New Zealand’s medicines and medical devices safety authority, Medsafe, announced in a press release that its Medicines Classification Committee (MCC) had recommended a reclassification of certain oral contraceptives in order for them to be made available over the counter in pharmacies. In A/NZ, a progressive temporal narrative has been established around contraception that begins with the heroic struggle of women at the turn of the 20<sup>th</sup> Century to get access to contraception and abortion as a way to manage their reproductive lives and progresses to the guaranteed access of contraceptives to women. My intention to interrogate the contemporary contraceptive reality is not a project to undermine the historically important moves women have made here in A/NZ; but, rather, to include new places of analysis including how indigenous communities experienced the same contraceptives moments differently under the gaze of a eugenics project.N. S. Appleton
Copyright (c) 2017 Health, Culture and Society
2017-12-082017-12-08909610.5195/hcs.2017.243Individualism as Habitus: Reframing the Relationship between Income Inequality and Health
https://hcs.pitt.edu/ojs/hcs/article/view/239
<span>Public health literature has demonstrated a negative effect of income inequality on a number of health outcomes. Researchers have attempted to explain this phenomenon, drawing on psychosocial and neo-materialist explanations. This paper argues, however, that these approaches fail to recognize the crucial role of culture, focusing specifically on the cultural value of individualism. Through a review of the literature and Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice as a theoretical framework, I provide support for the proposition that an ideology based in individualism is the context within which income inequality, social fragmentation, material deprivation, and consequently poor health outcomes are produced. I further offer recommendations for continued research into the role of cultural determinants in the income inequality-health relationship.</span>D. Adjaye-Gbewonyo
Copyright (c) 2017 Health, Culture and Society
2017-12-082017-12-089711110.5195/hcs.2017.239The Pandemic and its Impacts
https://hcs.pitt.edu/ojs/hcs/article/view/221
<div><p class="AbstractTitle">The Pandemic has a long history, but the term of “pandemic” is still not been defined by many medical texts. There have been many significant pandemics recorded in human history, and the pandemic related crises have caused enormous negative impacts on health, economies, and even national security in the world. This article will explore the literature for the concept and history of pandemics; summarises the key features of a pandemics, and discusses the negative impacts on health, economy, social and global security of pandemics and disease outbreaks.</p></div>W. QiuS. RutherfordA. MaoC. Chu
Copyright (c) 2017 Health, Culture and Society
2017-12-082017-12-0811110.5195/hcs.2017.221Resilience: Protective Factors for Depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder among African American Women?
https://hcs.pitt.edu/ojs/hcs/article/view/222
<p>There is a great need to carefully examine issues that may elevate one’s risk for mental illness and develop strategies to mitigate risk and cultivate resilience. African Americans, specifically African American women (AAW), are disproportionately affected by mental illness, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Higher rates of PTSD among AAW may be explained by significant rates of trauma exposure. Higher resiliency in individuals with mental illnesses is associated with better treatment response/outcomes. An examination of two (2) promising psycho-educational curricula for AAW at risk for depression and PTSD supports consideration of resilience as a protective factor among this population. Strengthening psychological resilience among diverse AAW at risk for depression and/or PTSD may serve as a protective factor for symptom severity. Multidimensional prevention and intervention strategies should incorporate culturally-centered, gender-specific, and strengths-based (resilience) models of care to help encourage mental health help-seeking and promotion of wellness for AAW.<strong></strong></p>K. B. HoldenN. D. HernandezG. L. WrennA. S. Belton
Copyright (c) 2017 Health, Culture and Society
2017-12-082017-12-08122910.5195/hcs.2017.222Maternal Health in Timor-Leste: Representations and Practices during Pregnancy, Birth and the Postnatal Period
https://hcs.pitt.edu/ojs/hcs/article/view/231
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.45pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" lang="EN-GB">Culture</span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;" lang="EN-GB"> has a strong influence on the representations and health behaviour of individuals and groups. This is reflected in the reproductive health of the Timorese women, intervention in this field being of a priority nature in Timor-Leste in view of its high fertility and maternal mortality rates. The purpose of this ethnographic study is to </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;" lang="EN-GB">analyse beliefs, representations and practices associated with pregnancy, birth and </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" lang="EN-GB">the postnatal period</span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;" lang="EN-GB">. It was conducted in Timor-Leste and involved the participation of health professionals, traditional midwives, women and couples, all of them selected through a snowball chain sampling procedure. Data was collected by means of exploratory semi-structured interviews and observation, and its content was duly analysed. The results show the existence of various recommendations, taboos and restrictions which aim at protecting the health of both mother and child, making use of traditional care practices which may vary among ethnolinguistic groups, communities or families.</span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.45pt;"> </p>H. B. ManuelN. Ramos
Copyright (c) 2017 Health, Culture and Society
2017-12-082017-12-08304610.5195/hcs.2017.231Misconceptions of the Deaf: Giving voice to the voiceless
https://hcs.pitt.edu/ojs/hcs/article/view/211
<p> </p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The Deaf usually do not see themselves as having a disability; however, discourses and social stereotyping continue to portray the Deaf rather negatively. These discourses may lead to misconceptions, prejudice and possibly discrimination. A study was conducted to identify the challenges members of the Deaf community experience accessing quality health care in a small Island state of Australia. Using a qualitative approach, semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted with service providers and the Deaf community. Audist discourses of deafness as deficiency, disability and disease remain dominant in contemporary society and are inconsistency with the Deaf community’s own perception of their reality. Despite the dominant constructions of deafness and their affect on the Deaf’s experience of health service provision, many Deaf have developed skills, confidence and resilience to live in the hearing world. The Deaf were pushing back on discourses that construct deafness as a disempowering impairment. </span></p>D. R. TerryQ. LêH. B. NguyenC. Malatzky
Copyright (c) 2017 Health, Culture and Society
2017-12-082017-12-08476110.5195/hcs.2017.211Meanings of Breast Cancer Survivorship Among Members of Ethnically-Identified Support Groups
https://hcs.pitt.edu/ojs/hcs/article/view/213
Research on both cancer survivorship and support needs has been limited in its attention to survivors from culturally-diverse communities. This study examined the perspectives of members and leaders of ethnically-identified breast cancer support groups regarding the meanings and expectations attached to survivorship. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 38 African American and Latina survivors in Central Florida. Participant narratives invoked themes of spiritual renewal and deepening religious faith, and deemphasized individual responsibility for personal change. Participants emphasized the importance of shared cultural identity in shaping the survivor experience, and some Latina women drew parallels between survivorship and the challenges of migration to a new country. An unwavering display of optimism was held to be paramount. These themes are interpreted within the framework of the interplay between dominant societal discourses of survivorship and locally-constructed meanings. Findings underscore the importance for healthcare providers to be cognizant and respectful of diverse perspectives on illness.K. E. DyerJ. Coreil
Copyright (c) 2017 Health, Culture and Society
2017-12-082017-12-08628010.5195/hcs.2017.213