Walking in Rhythm - Ethnography - page 21

An emic perspective compels the recognition and acceptance of multiple real-
ities. Documenting multiple perspectives of reality in a given study is crucial to
an understanding of why people think and act in the different ways they do.
Differing perceptions of reality can be useful clues to individuals' religious, eco-
nomic, or political status and can help a researcher understand maladaptive
behavior patterns. For example, in one study of a folk medicating group, eliciting
the emic perspective and acknowledging multiple realities helped me discover
why so many deaths had occurred in the community. I learned that the group
members often relied on native curers, or curanderos, to heal them with herbs,
prayers, medallions, candles, statues, incense, soaps, aerosols, and money. The
Seven African Powers is one of the most popular constellations of prayer, ritual,
candles, and talismans. The seven saints of the African Powers are chango, orula,
ogum, elegua, obatala, yemalla, and ochun. Each represents a specific force and
is represented by specific amulets, herbs, incense, and oil (for examples of reli-
gious instructional material, see Claremont, 1938; Gamache, 1942).
The folk medicators had an elaborate explanation for illness and healing
that conflicted with the beliefs and practices of conventional Western medi-
cine. Members of this group, however, were also seeing Western physicians—
a large leap of faith and a critical juncture in the socialization and assimilation
process. Some of these people believed their folk medications were not as
effective as they used to be, and others were simply persuaded by children or
friends to visit physicians. The latter group saw folk medications as effective
and Western medicine as ineffective. They saw physicians to avoid arguments
with their children or out of respect for friends; they assumed that modern
medicine was worthless and probably could not hurt them. They were too
embarrassed to tell their Western physicians about their folk medicating prac-
tices, however, and many of their physicians either did not want to hear about
those practices or dismissed them out of hand. Because they were caught
between two conflicting medical traditions, the members of this social group
resolved their conflict by taking their folk medications and their physicians'
prescriptions at the same time. The results ranged from disillusionment with
modern medicine to death. The two medical traditions overlapped with some-
times lethal effects. The folk medicators were taking strong herbs, including
foxglove, which contains digitalis (a heart stimulant). Patients who were also
taking prescription digitalis received a fatal overdose of the stimulant.
The study sensitized folk medicators and physicians to each other's subcul-
tures, thus reducing the mortality rate. It also demonstrated the significance of
assuming the emic perspective and acknowledging multiple realities. In this
study, however, the different realities (folk medicators and physicians) were
in conflict and required an etic, or outsider's, perspective to form a complete
picture of this medical and cultural phenomenon.