After reading the article on the Nacirema people and their culture, I felt that they are a materialistic society. The article describes their experience with the medical system as more of a cosmetic approach. The rituals that they passed down to their children, show that appearance is of high importance in their culture. The most valuable place for the Nacirema people to spend their time, is the shine which includes the chest full of charms and the font. As a whole, the Nacirema people are excessively proud with their appearance and they use this to calculate how many relationships they hold with others. For them, an uncommon facial feature may be grounds for isolation from others and loss of social interaction. I find no difficulty in respecting the Nacirema culture because it is how they decide to live. It would be wrong for me to judge their culture just because it is not a custom to me. Everyone has a right to express themselves how they choose, but I would like to suggest to Nacirema people a focus on overall wellness not just a cosmetic form of health service. There were no questions on the Nacirema culture because I understood their rituals and I can compare them to our society as well. The curative potions that they store in their charm-boxes and what we call medicine cabinets. Their rituals of personal hygiene are similar to my own, if not the same. Reading about their rituals stood out to be in general due to the realization that I also do these rituals on a daily basis. Did you find any or their practices troubling? Primitive? Strange? Normal? Subsequently reading this article, it does not surprise me to learn that the Nacirema people are affected by heart disease, cancers, anxiety, and other illnesses. There is no shock factor to this information because the article portrays the people as being health incompetent. As a whole, the culture lacks health literacy and they are trusting on the care of the medicine men, which isn’t always the best route. In terms of health care, I would like to see the Nacirema community be more aware of the health issues that concern their culture. In all honestly, I am concerned that their obligation for medical attention from the medicine men, since it seems that it only occurs when they are sick.
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This lack of medical attention leads to an influx of diseases developing within their communities due to their lack of primary prevention. Personally, I schedule check-up appointments with my physicians to monitor my health and wellness with blood work and physical exams. Compared to the Nacirema culture, my health choices target an upstream approach of health care. With their culture in mind, I would urge the people to see visit the medicine men at least once a month until they completely understand their health. It may be difficult to relate this information to the community without being culturally destructive because they may feel like my suggest is targeting them for not being health conscious. To further analysis their determinants of health I would need to know their prosimity to a health facility and their socioeconomic status. In their culture, the Nacirema visit latipso when they are in need to medical attention. Unfortunately, the latipso requires them to bare gifts upon arrival and if they are seen by the medicine men due to an emergency, then they aren’t permitted to leave unless they hand over the gifts. Another piece of crucial information would be to know their beliefs on the purchase of health insurance. If they do not feel it is necessary to have health insurance then I would need to education them on this topic as well. Throughout the course of the semester, we’ve discussed various subpopulations and their health disparities. With that being said, learning about the prisoner population has raised my concern on their health disparities because of the lack of resources available to them. The prisoner population is at a higher risk for developing certain diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. As a society, many times we stereotype and judge this particular population because of where they reside. The stereotype is that these men and women chose to be incarcerated through their bad decisions and strong influences. In reality, many of these people are incarcerated because they do
This lack of medical attention leads to an influx of diseases developing within their communities due to their lack of primary prevention. Personally, I schedule check-up appointments with my physicians to monitor my health and wellness with blood work and physical exams. Compared to the Nacirema culture, my health choices target an upstream approach of health care. With their culture in mind, I would urge the people to see visit the medicine men at least once a month until they completely understand their health. It may be difficult to relate this information to the community without being culturally destructive because they may feel like my suggest is targeting them for not being health conscious. To further analysis their determinants of health I would need to know their prosimity to a health facility and their socioeconomic status. In their culture, the Nacirema visit latipso when they are in need to medical attention. Unfortunately, the latipso requires them to bare gifts upon arrival and if they are seen by the medicine men due to an emergency, then they aren’t permitted to leave unless they hand over the gifts. Another piece of crucial information would be to know their beliefs on the purchase of health insurance. If they do not feel it is necessary to have health insurance then I would need to education them on this topic as well. Throughout the course of the semester, we’ve discussed various subpopulations and their health disparities. With that being said, learning about the prisoner population has raised my concern on their health disparities because of the lack of resources available to them. The prisoner population is at a higher risk for developing certain diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. As a society, many times we stereotype and judge this particular population because of where they reside. The stereotype is that these men and women chose to be incarcerated through their bad decisions and strong influences. In reality, many of these people are incarcerated because they do