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Anthropology

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Browsing Anthropology by Author "Darong, Gabriel Gyang."

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    The cultural construction of illness amongst isiZulu-speaking nurses: probing nurses' understanding of patient's illness and health in hospitals.
    (2014) Darong, Gabriel Gyang.; Naidu, Uma Maheshvari.
    This study attempts to understand how cultural constructions of illness amongst isiZulu-speaking nurses shape their understanding of health, illness and patient care. The study thus takes as a backdrop, the idea that people‟s views of the world and daily phenomena are shaped by their cultural practices and beliefs. The study was qualitative and ethnographic and was carried out at a public hospital in the Durban area. It involved 20 participants and the data was collected through in-depth participant observation and semi-structured interviews. A unique feature of the study was that some of the participants were both trained biomedical nurses as well as practicing izangoma. The findings of the study show that the isiZulu-speaking nurses‟ understandings of health and illness have been shaped by their cultural constructions of health and illness. Aside from their nursing training, isiZulu-speaking nurses‟ understanding of health and illness is likewise understood as being in part, shaped by and embedded in their cultural practices and beliefs such as bewitchment and ancestry curse. These cultural constructions and understandings in turn influence their clinical decisions and patient care. The research findings reveal that the isiZulu-speaking nurses involved in the study face levels of internal conflict in carrying out clinical decisions. Such a conflict was deeply expressed by the nurses; especially the isangoma nurses who felt that their twin expertise as traditional practitioners and nurses places them in a better position to understand „how‟ to care for patients, against the care prescribed by the hospital. This difficulty faced by the nurses is informed by the sometimes conflicting and contested expectations on them as biomedical personnel against their own culturally embedded understanding of health, illness, and patient care.
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    Experiences of people living with HIV/AIDS in a plural health care system: probing tensions and complexities.
    (2018) Darong, Gabriel Gyang.; Naidu, Uma Maheshvari.; Moshabela, Matlagolo Mosa.
    HIV/AIDS is treated biomedically. People living with HIV (PLHIV) are expected to strictly adhere to active antiretroviral treatment (ART) prescribed by biomedical health practitioners in order to “progress” on the cascade of care. Poor progression on the cascade of care, however, has been shown to exist amongst PLHIV. The use of multiple health systems – biomedicine, traditional healing and religious healing, known as medical pluralism, has been said to be a contributing factor in the poor adherence to HIV testing and treatment. Some PLHIV, however, have been shown to be in care while practicing medical pluralism. Thus, this study explores the experiences of such PLHIV in their practice of medical pluralism, especially how navigate the systems and treatments utilised. This study was conducted at the Hlabisa sub-District, a rural area in uMkhanyakude District of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, though qualitative ethnography. Eighteen participants were recruited using theoretical and purposive sampling. Nine PLHIV were the primary participants in the study. Of the nine PLHIV, four were also traditional healers. The other nine participants, made up of five biomedical healthcare practitioners, three traditional healers and one faith/religious healer, were the secondary participants. The study found that the PLHIV in the study consciously made concurrent, parallel or sequential use of plural healthcare for various health conditions when they believed such conditions can best or only be treated using specific health systems. None of the participants sought to “treat” or “cure” HIV using health systems outside biomedicine. The study found that some of the participants refused initiation into ART due to the attitude of the biomedical health practitioners towards the participants’ use of plural health. Primary participants who maintained their ART all reported to have had suppressed viral loads and high CD4 counts. Their health-seeking behaviours can be seen as an expression of their agency. Hence, rather than excluding them from using basic primary health services due to their plural health use, a better understanding and appreciation of their reasons, motivations, and manners of practising medical pluralism is needed. This will aid in the development of health programmes that better cater for their health needs.