Mohan Dutta: Culture-Centered Approach

As much as I maintained a strong stance to not write a blog entry based on the Sharp article, I couldn’t help but continually return to it as I contemplated the topics to be covered for this week’s class. So, rather than resisting it, I’ve decided to succumb to the pure micro level of commodification of the body. But, what about it kept drawing me in? The primary reason was mostly due to the fact that I found many parts (no pun intended) rather disturbing. It’s more easily understood for me to consider the micro-level of persons as it relates to perception of the surrounding environment, and associated beliefs and values. Along with that, the discussion can incorporate the power of influence and hegemonic forces that purposefully align beliefs and values in a way that supports the dominant structure. However, when you deliberately begin to drill down even further and segment the human body in a way that supports a Marxian view of production and value, it becomes quite disturbing… and...

Until reading both Good (1995) and Hahn and Kleinman (1983), I hadn’t fully recognized the extensive power afforded to biomedicine by Western society. This power is pervasive and appears to encompass all aspects of our modern medical system, from healthcare delivery to medical research and technology, from the provision of health information to the public to medical training institutions. I found myself continually drawing examples from my own research and personal experience that matched the hegemonic influences of the biomedical system presented by these authors. For instance, Good spends a considerable amount of her piece discussing the biomedical model’s focus on cutting-edge technology as a medium of conveying hope. She notes, “American willingness to invest both public funds and private monies in experimental chemotherapies and clinical trials illustrates high commitment to biotechnology and the biotechnical fix” (p. 465). It is true that, in today’s society, competent oncologica...

One of the concepts that continually haunts the social scientist working on issues of social justice is the apparent disconnect between the issues he/she works on and the lived experiences of oppression and disempowerment that are often tied to these issues. So a question that naturally arises amidst this power imbalance is one of authenticity. How does one find the adequate language to talk about say poverty and hunger without having experienced poverty and hunger herself/himself? What credibility or meaningful place do I occupy as a scholar to speak about issues of poverty when my lived experiences have been situated amidst a privileged middle class upbringing? How can I talk about hunger in my work when I have not experieced hunger myself? I don't think there is a simple answer to this question. The academic response typically to questions such as this is one of defensiveness. Answers typically verge on responses such as "One does not really need to experience hunger to...

This is the sentence that I read again and again: “Identity refers to the ways in which we see ourselves, and is intrinsically connected to our understandings of health and illness, our relationship with others in healthcare settings, and the actions we engage in the context of health and illness(Bordo 1987; Shilling 1993).”

Boddy’s piece on spirit possession has prompted me to rethink some of my views about some cultural practices that I usually condemn without deeply reflecting about the underlying philosophy. For instance, growing up in an African setting, I had witnessed many people who were possessed, or who exhibited traits of being in ‘trance’. In those circumstances, my position was outright condemnation of the practice as uncivilized. But having read Boddy’s work, I have realized that passing judgment on the other is reductionism and parochial. For instance, I ask myself, how did I arrive at the negative assumption and condemnation about their practices? Is it right to pass judgment about their practices? Or better still, do I have the right to judge the practices of other people? Is it fair to judge their practices without listening to them? I have realized that condemning the practices of the other could be likened to claiming that one’s mother’s food tastes sweeter than every woman’s food wh...

If the act of developing a working knowledge of a theoretical framework using the culture-centered approach is like jumping off a diving board, then I’m certain I just left the board. While my own research has continually revolved around the area of culture, CCA is a lens that provides a wildly new view. I gladly embrace it for its valuable insight and ability to establish a dialogue with and among audiences that have typically been set out on the peripheries of the social environment. But, frankly, it is just plain hard… not because it is hard to accept, but because it is hard to practice. For the first time in my education and research, I have to deconstruct many of common understandings of audiences and social dynamics that I’ve been taught over the years and begin rebuilding them simply to be more purposeful in my research . Therefore, I’m thankful for the readings which challenge me with this new lens. For example, the Boddy article regarding spirit possession was, of course, a ...

In reading Dutta’s “Communicating Health” chapter on culture, identity, and health, I was prompted to critically evaluate a number of conflicts I’ve encountered in my study of rural health disparity. From the traditional perspective I’ve been exposed to in prior courses, it seems as though the primary focus of public health intervention is that of diagnosing the health status of a population, identifying contributors to negative health outcomes, and consequentially crafting programs that address these contributors. Just as in the biomedical model, this system propagates the view that the sick population is a site to be acted upon by an all-encompassing “medicalizing logic,” broadly applicable to any community in need of intervention. Such a viewpoint shifts the attention away from questions of resource inequities or structure. Ultimately, the health of the individual is the site by which change at the population level occurs, such that many interventions focus on encouraging a change i...