The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures (Fadiman, 1997) is an ethnography based on the story of Lia Lee. Lia was born to Hmong immigrant parents in Merced, California in 1982. The story is recounted in the Lee family and their collaborations with the medicinal group in Merced being taken care of by Lia, who develops an epileptic seizure at around 3 months of age. Dialect hindrances and conviction framework differences kept Lia from accepting optimal care, despite the fact that both her family and the specialists did their best to help her epilepsy. As both cultures could not come to terms, this led to Lia is being brain dead at five years of age but continues to live a …show more content…
vegetative existence disconnected from any life support system. Cultural differences were the centre explanation behind the misconception between the Hmong and the Merced medical staff.
According to (Lundberg, 2015), shamanism is an animistic religion which is practiced by the Hmong, while biomedicine deemed as rational is practiced among the westerns. This essay aims to analyze and discuss the cultural collision between shamanism and biomedicine, which eventually led to ethnocentrism. To illustrate the above point, an overview of different ideologies and approaches to Lia’s condition between both cultures will be further look into. This essay will also examine how these two cultures deem one another as irrational and rational, superior and non-superior which eventually lead to ethnocentrism. Overview Shamans were used in one of the treatment approaches to Lia’s condition of epilepsy. To comprehend about shamanism, it is required to know that Shamanism is not a religion as such, but cosmological complex of beliefs myths, rituals, practices, and paraphernalia centred on the person of the shaman (Bowie, 2006). The definition about shamanism is defined by Gresham, shamanism is a particular arrangement of beliefs and practices utilized by
shamans as a part of serving the spirit world and their own kin. It is the shaman's business to keep the general population in agreement with nature and the spirit world, and to recuperate them or bring them over into concordance when required (as cited in Lundberg, 2015). Shaman is often known “wounded healer.” Shaman has the ability to heal by recuperating their own particular injuries through an association with the paranormal world, that shamans obtain the capacity to go back and forth, similar to a soul, between ordinary reality and paranormal reality (Robertson, 2014). In order to be a shaman, it is a call that usually initiate during that of early adulthood. They have to go through certain omens such as striking feature, experience deformity, epilepsy or unexpected recovery from severe illness. Through those experiences, only then they are eligible to be shamans (Walsh, 1994). Having to overcome all these omens, shamans are now qualified to heal different illness of others, as well as heal souls and enter the supernatural realms to find solutions to real world problems (Lundberg, 2015). The other approach used to in treating Lia’s condition is biomedicine. Contrary to shamanism that associates mainly with illness, biomedicine often associates with “diseases”, an outward manifestation of sickness (Lundberg, 2015). According to (Kroker, 2008) biomedicine is defined as the application of the principles of the natural sciences, especially biology and physiology, to clinical medicine. Therefore, with the modern science applied in treating diseases, it can help patients in recovering. The clash between Lees and doctors Diagnosis The reason for Lia's epilepsy was translated contrastingly by her parents and her doctors. The belief of Foua and Nao Kao was that Lia's disorder is "qaug dab peg" which means “the spirit catches you and you fall down.” It is mainly caused by the loud noise of the door that frightened the soul, which result the soul fleeing her body and become lost. Lia's specialists, nonetheless, argue that epilepsy is a neurological anomaly that causes the neurons, mind cells, to flame wildly. (Fadiman, 1997). The doctors felt that the Hmong’s ideology were irrational because it is not based on any scientific claims or reasoning, that they know about epilepsy. It is seemingly impossible that the cause of the disease is caused by losing of one spirit. What is rational to them was what they had learnt previously in their studies about epilepsy, which is the uncontrollable firing of brain. However, to the Hmong what seems rational to them was based on souls leaving. That has been their tradition since many years ago. What were irrational to them were terms like neurons or brain cells because they were not taught by nor educated in it. Ethnocentrism is present as both the doctors and Hmong feel that they since they perceive about Lia’s condition differently, they are different. The doctors feel that the Hmong is overly superstitious and irrational because their logic of soul leaving the body does not flow in accordance to how to what they had learnt about epilepsy. A sense of superiority in their own culture as the doctors may see the Hmong as uneducated and superstitious. Likewise to the Hmong, since this tradition has been passed down over generations, their tradition has always been normal and natural. The Hmong see the doctors as ignorant and abnormal as the doctors do not conform to their beliefs (Fadiman, 1997). Perception The Hmong and the doctors have different perception on Lia’s epilepsy. The Hmong sees that having "qaug touch peg," is an honour. This is the road to becoming a txiv neeb (shamans or spiritual healers). But to the doctors, this is a disease to get rid of. Because of there not being a Hmong interpreter present at different times, the parents did not comprehend what doctor thought and why they did things. Neither did the doctor understand how the parents view illness (Fadiman, 1997). Since their perception of the sickness was different, there was a delay in the treatment of epilepsy. Foua and Nao Kao neglected to give Lia the medications that she required in light of the fact that they thought the medications hurt her more than they helped. Lia's parents additionally felt an exceptional pride on the grounds that, in the Hmong society, epileptics frequently get to be txiv neeb when they grow up. (Fadiman, 1997). Due to this conflicting view, no proper treatment can be ministered to Lia. The Hmong feel that there were more superior in their culture as they felt the prescribed medicine by the doctors would not work but bring harm and it also hinders the route of Lia being a txiv nee. The doctors however removed Lia from her parent’s custody after various observations of her parents not giving her medications as were endorsed as they feel that Lia’s parent perceptions of taking pride in epilepsy is abnormal and irrational. Their differences in their perceptions towards one another, leads to ethnocentrism. Cure The Hmong and doctors have different ways in treating epilepsy. The doctors see epilepsy as something physiological. Therefore, they had only prescribed antiepileptic medications and other necessities such as drawing blood to treat epilepsy. Lees belief of the illness is caused lost so. Therefore, his ideal treatment of “qaug dab peg” is sacrificing chickens and pigs and acquires the help of a txiv neeb to negotiate for Lia's soul. The Lee’s believe that everyone has finite blood and repetition of drawing blood will cause the blood to run out. (Fadiman, 1997). The Lees thought that the doctors are taking dangerous risk and it will cause more harm than cure to Lia in time to come. More than just that, the lees felt that the doctors are not putting enough care for Lia as compared to the txiv neebfuses. In the shaman's home there are no time constraints, unlike that of a busy physician who has another patient in the next examining room to see. Due to all these different methods used by different culture, the Lees felt that their cultural methods are better. Therefore, they compromise on the treatment given by the doctors. On the other hand, the doctors felt that the Lees are irrational by sacrificing animals to save Lia and prioritising these rituals over the medications prescribed by them. The failure to recognise and respect each other method, thinking that it is abnormal and inferior leads to ethnocentrism. (Yang, 1998)
Further, prayer and medicine interplay to paint a classical image of the Native’s creed, yet, for many obsolete or preposterous existences of the shaman. To re-install beliefs present in the world for thousands of years, but have been disappearing, writers such as Neidhardt introduce the element of the
Perhaps the greatest problem faced throughout this tale was that of miscommunication. The Merced Community Medical Center or MCMC for short was the place where Lia was being treated. This hospital was the Merced county's only hospital and unlike most rural county hospital it is state of the art, ."..42,000-square foot wing ... that houses coronary care, intensive care, and transitional care units; 154 medical and surgical beds...."3 This was a teaching hospital made up of interns mostly, but also with some great doctors like Peggy Philp and Neil Ernst. Peggy and Neil are married and have children. They graduated together at the top of their class, and have created quite a practice for themselves. Although MCMC is a great rural hospital, it also has the same problems as most rural hospitals do which is the health care crunch, where most of the money goes to the urban hospitals and then the leftover money is spread among th...
The two Hmong cultural values that were demonstrated by the Lee family are portrayed by their belief and view about the cause and method of cure for an illness. The Lee family comes from a culture that believes in holistic healing. They have an animalistic view about health and medicine. For instance an epileptic is seen as someone who has been chosen to be a healer. Most Hmong epileptic are shamans, therefore even though the Lee’s wish that their daughter’s illness will be cured, they also have a mixture of pride because “although shamanism is an arduous calling that require years of training with a master in order to learn the ritual techniques and chants, it confers an enormous amount of social status in the community and publicly marks the triv neeh as a person of high moral character since a healing spirit will never choose a no account host” (Fadiman,1997, p.21). It is not surprising that their view about health is reflected mostly in their traditional belief in the causes and the cure of an illness. For i...
2) Medical pluralism was used to treat Lia in Fadiman’s book as she was treated using both Western medicine and Hmong medicine. For example, she was taken to Merced County Hospital by her parents after she began to have seizures to get her looked at by Doctors and while there she was treated using western medication. At the same time though her family also treated her using Hmong medical beliefs which involved sacrificing animals in an attempt to bring her spirit back as well as visiting Twix Neeb, a Hmong shaman, in Michigan in an attempt to get professional help in curing their daughter.
Union between two quarrelsome objects can be the most amazing creation in certain situations, take for instance, water. Originally, water was just hydroxide and hydrogen ions, but together these two molecules formed a crucial source of survival for most walks of life. That is how marriage can feel, it is the start of a union that without this union the world would not be the same. A Hmong mother, Foua took it upon herself to perform a marriage ceremony for the author of “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down”, Anne Fadiman. In this miniscule event, two cultures with completely conflicting ideas came together to form a union. In this union, an American was celebrating an event in a Hmong way, truly a collision of two cultures.
Winkelman, Michael. "Shamanism in Cross-Cultural Perspective." International Journal of Transpersonal Studies 31.2 (2013): 47-62. Google Scholar. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.
The Vietnam War caused great destruction in Laos, and so the Lee family migrated to America, after spending a short time in refugee camps in Thailand. After settling in America, Foua gives birth to Lia, who unbeknownst to them will suffer from epilepsy soon after she is born. For four years, little Lia is admitted to hospital seventeen times, after suffering both grand and petit mal seizures. Through miscommunication and a failure to understand each other’s cultural differences, both the parents of Lia, and her American doctors, are ultimately at fault for Lia’s tragic fate, when she is left in a vegetative state.
The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down by Ann Fadiman is a very interesting book. It’s amazing how difficult it is for Americans to understand other cultures because the United States is such a diverse country. However, as an American, I understood the frustrations that Lia Lee’s doctors’ felt when trying to diagnose and treat her properly. In this book both the American doctors and the Hmong peoples faced many hardships and barriers when trying to communicate with each other. After having read this book I can understand where both groups were coming from and reasons for their actions. I could only imagine the level of difficulty and anger that the doctors and Lia’s parents must have experienced over that time period.
How would it feel to flee from post-war Communist forces, only to face an ethnocentric population of people in a new country? In Anne Fadiman's The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, a portrait of a disquieting, often times touching, ethnography (i.e. a book that details particular data of an extended period of time an anthropologist spent living closely with a community of individuals during his or her field work) of Fadiman's experience living in Merced, California, which was home to the largest population of Hmong refugees, such as the Lee family, from Laos who suffered mass confusion when trying to navigate the American health care system. Because the Hmong could not speak sufficient English until the children gained language skills native to the United States, residents of California were not accepting of the Hmong community. Fadiman aims to better understand how knowledge of illness among Hmong and Western medical practitioners differ, which pushes the reader to understand how the complicate medical treatment in the past as well as the present from a perspective of an American observing a Hmong family's struggle with the system. In America, it isn’t uncommon to be judged for your clothing, your house, or the amount of money your family makes, so it is easy to believe that the Hmong people were not easily accepted into American society. As a whole, ethnocentrism, or the tendency to believe that one's culture is superior to another, is one of America's weaknesses and this account proves ethnocentric behavior was prominent even in the 1970-80's when Fadiman was in the process of doing her fieldwork in post-Vietnam War Era California.
It is important to consider that the Hmong had their own way of spiritual beliefs and religious healing practices. However, after the community decided to exclude Lia from the applications and advantages of modern medicine, the condition of the young girl worsened (Parish, 2004, p. 131). It was not at all wrong to humanize medicine, but apparently, as a multi-cultural community, the Hmong people became too ignorant and indignant over the applications and benefits of modern medicine applications. Staying firm over their religious affiliations and conduct, the maximum effect of healing became misaligned and ineffective. This was the misunderstanding that should be cleared in the story. There would have been probable results if the Hmong community chose to collaborate with the modern society without needing to disregard or compromise their own values and religious affiliations and
In “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” by Anne Fadiman, the whole story revolves around Lia, the thirteenth child of Lee family. Lee family was a refugee family in USA and Lia was their first child to be born in US. At the time of time of birth, she was declared as a healthy child but at the age of three it was founded that she is suffering from epilepsy. In the words of western or scientific world the term epilepsy mean mental disorder of a person and in Hmong culture, epilepsy is referred to as qaug dab peg (translated in English, "the spirit catches you and you fall down"), in which epileptic attacks are perceived as evidence of the epileptic's ability to enter and journey momentarily into the spirit realm (Wikipedia, 2014)
The book I read to examine multicultural issues and cultural biases was The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Faldiman. I found it helpful to use Google maps to get a visual of the location Hmong refugees came from in Laos and mentally trace their journey across the Pacific to settle in Merced, CA. There are two main cultures discussed in this book which includes the subordinate Hmong Lee family and the dominant White American doctors who tried to help Lia with her medical or spirit issues depending on which culture you asked. Faldiman stated in the preface, “I have always felt that the action most worth watching is not at the center of things but where the edges meet.” This statement would hold so much relevance because Lia’s treatments could have been less stressful if the two cultures reached a point of intersectionality. This is also congruent with what Tatum mentioned in Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria concerning, “Changes in immigration policy in 1965 dramatically increased Asian immigration, significantly altering the demographic makeup of the Asian Pacific American community.” In order to have a full
Tradition is defined in the dictionary as the handing down from generation to generation of the same customs and beliefs. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, I believe has two main topics addressed: the traditions of the Hmong people, and the dangers of being unable to communicate. The misunderstanding of these two consequential points, I believe caused the majority of conflict that arose.
Examining different depictions of cultural encounters between the East and the West in different media such as literature and film provides important insight into the complexity of human interactions, highlighting attitudes, preferences and social and political dynamics. This theme focuses on the historical, social and cultural exchange between Eastern and Western civilizations, focusing on the impact of these interactions on individual and collective identity. Through literature and film, artists and writers are able to capture the nuances of cultural encounters and provide a platform for dialogue, reflection and understanding. This essay will examine the historical context, major events, key figures, and implications of studying cultural