Ethnic Distribution
For our final project, Angela Liu, Dave Lacroix, and I decided to research traditional medical practices in Nicaragua. Our presentation contained an overview of ethnic groups and related historical context (see map below), before delving into indigenous perceptions of health and biomedicine. Within this topic, we decided to focus on women’s health and childcare, along with natural remedies and structural barriers (to accessing institutionalized resources) for each category. We closed our presentation with a discussion of integrative medicine and possible approaches to resolving issues with traditional healthcare in Nicaragua.
As we want to grasp an understanding of how to approach these traditional remedies to regional maladies– with cultural sensitivity–when introducing modern healthcare solutions, we will likely interview members of the community (through surveys and ethnographic interviews) to learn more about traditional medicines, assess their effectiveness, and gain an understanding of the Nicaraguan view on what constitutes a “healthy” individual, as this varies from region to region. We then hope to create presentations (based on the surveys) directed towards health professionals (through videos, pamphlets, powerpoints, etc.) that compare regional and modern medicines, and share our conclusions on which methods are deemed more effective (depending on the illnesses noted)– or the best way they should be integrated.
The powerpoint for our presentation can be accessed in the link below. Also below is an infographic summarizing our project (click to view full size and zoom).
