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Sjaak van der Geest

Publications and source records attributed to Sjaak van der Geest.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Social and cultural efficacies of medicines: complications for antiretroviral therapy.

Using ethnographic examples of medicine use, prescription, distribution and production, the authors argue that social and cultural effects of pharmaceuticals should be taken into account. Non-medical effects deeply influence the medical outcome of medicine use. Complications around the advent of anti-AIDS medicines in poor countries are taken as a point in case. The authors are medical anthropologists specialised in the social and cultural analysis of pharmaceuticals.

Anthropology, Cultural↗
PubMed2004

Dying peacefully: considering good death and bad death in Kwahu-Tafo, Ghana.

People in Kwahu-Tafo, a rural town in Southern Ghana, regard a peaceful death as a 'good death'. 'Peaceful' refers to the dying person having finished all business and made peace with others before his/her death and implies being at peace with his/her own death. It further refers to the manner of dying: not by violence, an accident or a fearsome disease, not by foul means and without much pain. A good and peaceful death comes 'naturally' after a long and well-spent life. Such a death preferably takes place at home, which is the epitome of peacefulness, surrounded by children and grandchildren. Finally, a good death is a death which is accepted by the relatives. This 'definition' of good death--'bad death' is its opposite--does not imply, however, that it is a fixed category. The quality of one's death is liable to social and political manoeuvre and, therefore, inherently ambiguous. The good death of a very old and successful person can be decried by the younger generation as the death of a witch who managed to live long at the expense of young people who died prematurely. The article is based on anthropological fieldwork carried out intermittently from 1971 to the present day.

Anthropology, Cultural↗
PubMed2004

Hospital ethnography: introduction.

The introduction sets out two central ideas around which this collection of articles on hospital ethnography has been organised. The first is that hospitals are not identical clones of a global biomedical model. Hospitals take on different forms in different cultures and societies. Medical views and technical facilities may vary considerably leading to different diagnostic and therapeutic traditions. The second idea, related to the first, is that biomedicine and the hospital as its foremost institution is a domain where the core values and beliefs of a culture come into view. Hospitals both reflect and reinforce dominant social and cultural processes of their societies. The authors further discuss some methodological and ethical complexities of doing fieldwork in a hospital setting and present brief summaries of the contributions, which deal with hospitals in Ghana, South Africa, Bangladesh, Mexico, Italy, The Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Egypt and Lebanon.

Anthropology, Cultural↗
PubMed2004

Doctors and retribution: the hospitalisation of compensation claims in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea.

The cultures in the Papua New Guinea Highlands are characterised by a tradition of retribution. Compensation is part of an elaborate system of exchanging gifts, goods and services. Compensation is paid to those who have suffered some kind of loss for which others are held responsible. Such incidents include death or injury caused by fighting, a road accident or domestic violence, theft, rape, gossip, and property damage. Fear of revenge is an important motive for paying compensation. The hospital has become an increasingly important institution for retribution. It provides medical reports to support compensation claims of physical damage in cases involving violence or an accident. Case material, collected by one of the authors who conducted fieldwork in a hospital in the Southern Highlands, shows that the hospital has established itself as an authoritative actor in the local compensation culture. Doctors spend about one afternoon per week writing medical reports for compensation claims. These reports have become an attractive extra source of income for the hospital. The article describes and analyses a number of cases to illustrate the hospital's role in the production and legitimisation of retribution.

Anthropology, Cultural↗