Indigenous Rights and the Struggle for Representation
Why Plurinational and Why Now?
His self-identification with the native gives him greater political economy and power because he can better represent the majority of the population. In addition, he also promoted policies disguised to address the needs and concerns of the indigenous population.
Language Barriers to Health Care
There is only one rural health care clinic and the resident doctor only speaks Spanish. De Varennes discusses linguistic politics through his argument and shows how the inclusion of indigenous languages can improve public health care.
Barriers to Public Health Care
Health Care Sectors and Levels
The first level is called "entry-level" and makes up about 93% of the healthcare field. To specify further, delivery refers to the birth of the child, while the birth process means the beginning of. The proportion of women in the La Paz department is 50.52% of the total population, both urban and rural.
One of the most important cultural differences I would like to emphasize is the difference in the use of communication. Traditional healers typically communicate in the native language of the people they treat, and show their patients their own respect and admiration for the indigenous culture (Murphy 2008). This is also happening in the United States with the increasing commercialization of the benefits of natural foods, products and medicinals.
One of the most successful elements of the program has been the involvement of health professionals in home births. Bolivian public health programs and insurance schemes are essential to include indigenous rights, with plans for indigenous inclusion to be extended to other parts of Bolivian society. One of the most important aspects of interculturation in the two health philosophies surrounded the role of women.
Interim Evaluation of the Bolivian Health Support Program.” UNICEF and Bolivian Ministry of Health and Sports.
Insurances Policies: SNMN, SBS, and SUMI
Policy Recommendations
The second category in which most of the policy recommendations, which contain four of the seven points, are what I call accommodating Indigenous culture in health care by creating equal space. 1) 'There is a need to design and implement policies and interventions tailored to the needs of rural areas and indigenous populations and to focus on reducing inequalities affecting these groups. Thus, respecting traditional rituals or methods and incorporating traditional ways into health care acknowledges the social power it has in a community context.
Recalling my definition in the introduction, medical enculturation is the social construction of the process of teaching an individual the norms and characteristics of a cultural sphere. In this specific context, Silva and Batista, for example, call on Western-trained physicians to adhere to and listen to the cultural boundaries of the indigenous population. Thus, they are able to actively explore cultural differences while promoting health services in a way that makes health care more accessible to indigenous people by involving them in the health care process.
The Nature(s) of Traditional Medicine
Additionally, most approaches work together to provide a traditional healing practitioner with a thorough knowledge and understanding of the trade. While this approach may provide the student with alternate thoughts or practices, it has been shown to help provide a more general analysis of the human body. The home space is a very intimate, family environment and when the healer comes in to help treat a patient, he/she is becoming part of the symbolic mold of the family, respecting and following their ways.
Through this one can see how a native Bolivian can feel, respond and desire the relationship of a healer and patient more than that of the doctor-patient relationship. Although traditional healers may have prestige in their community, they do not follow the rigid political structure of the government. Rodríguez Márquez Rosario looks at this concept in his research on urban Andean space, demonstrating how difficult and complicated it can be for indigenous leaders to enter the public political sphere where white, non-indigenous men dominate most of Bolivia's dominated history.
Gendered Spaces
While men began to gradually move further and further away from the house or "body of the family" to do other work, women were exposed to the intimate, relational space of the nature of the body and how to heal it with what . While for decades the role of women in traditional healing has been left out of history books and ethnographic analyses; Beatriz Loza argues that their importance was crucial. Beatriz Loza hypothesizes that due to the great absence of men during these twenties, women were able to become important social actors in the field of traditional healing and that later generations could own and manage shops that would focus on natural medicines and treatments.
For example, the male is the shepherd, traveling with the animals while protecting and bringing supplies from further afield, while the female takes care of the home. By examining the complementary nature of gender roles, it can be concluded that gender roles would be evident in traditional healing beliefs. Saravia alludes to an inherent quality in women that helps them better understand and learn elements of traditional healing and treatment.
Traditional Healing and/or Natural Medicine
El Mercado de las Brujas” or “Witch Market”. In addition, the notion of witchcraft also demonstrates how indigenous healing had worse experiences once it became accepted and valued in society. Market,” in current Bolivian society, there are more women who become healers or owners of small shops that sell natural remedies and medicines. Therefore, traditional healing is usually more about a certain ethnic population, especially indigenous people, who believe and practice different ideals within the healing process.
On the other hand, natural medicine when speaking more broadly should not be associated with traditional healing. This craze is also happening in Bolivia's urban commercial market, allowing vendors to disassociate indigenous beliefs of identity with traditional healing and instead allow products to be seen as only "natural" and more of a resource. national. not indigenous, pride. Simply put, the distinctions between indigenous healing and natural medicine are used to separate cultural identity and indigenous community from the use of natural, homeopathic medicine.
Current Evidence of Interculturality
For example, out of the six pharmacies surveyed, five indicated that the top three most common illnesses for La Paz were altitude sickness, stomach ache/sickness and cough/flu-like symptoms. However, the pharmacists expressed how common and frequent many of the top three diseases were, in conclusion. Also, with more than seventy percent of respondents taking vitamins, only twenty-eight percent bought them from a yatiris or market woman.
Most of the results were mixed, but this could be due to a large number of factors, such as: age, gender, geographical and historical differences30. Through the surveys, more than seventy percent of the respondents admitted to some form of natural use. This shows that traditional remedies have themselves been identified and limited by the people who believe in the power of the practice, or that it is very much a cultural practice, more than a.
Differences in Medical Practices
Imagine that you are a pregnant indigenous woman and the birthing tradition followed by all the women in your family consists of giving birth in your home, an intimate and warm place. Your husband should be the only one with you besides maybe your midwife, he will clothe and feed you before the birth and after he removes the placenta according to your traditional cultural rituals. Instead, you are put in a cold hospital room, dressed in a simple sheet, given some generic food, and many nurses and doctors come in and out of your room, looking at you and examining you.
Understanding the safety and warmth provided in the home environment, indigenous women typically choose their own home instead of a hospital, which is perceived as cold, both physically and communicatively. Historically, the health care field has not accepted the differences and incorporated their beliefs into Western medical practices. Due to the lack of prior understanding and mixing (or interculturation) of the two ideas, poor health indicators remained stagnant or even worsened.
Interculturated Programs
Their traditional beliefs are not a way of life that they learned at a certain age or even gradually developed more strongly over the years.
Resolving Differences in Communication
One of the most dominant examples was the use of the birthing blanket given to indigenous women to help her feel safer and warmer throughout the process. From the study, the program realized how useful the ideas of the healers were in helping to realize the importance of the illness that takes place in the person's soul and beyond. This is an example of cross-cultural adaptation, in which health care professionals have taken into account the rituals surrounding the birth process and participate in the ritual as active participants.
The main rationale behind the creation of PASS stems from the fact that 57% of the Bolivian population between the ages of 6 and 59 do not have access to health services, and although 87% do, they are excluded from higher levels of care (UDAPE and UNICEF 2006). UNICEF's participation was crucial as it was one of the first international organizations, along with the Canadian Agency for International Development, to support the adaptation of the Bolivian Ministry of Health to the intercultural model established by President Evo. Through this collaboration, PASS can more effectively engage all components of the multinational Bolivian state or autonomous government, departments (such as the US state structure), and municipalities to become active participants in the program.
However, this element has proven problematic as many health professionals do not have the time, money, language training or manpower to follow this proposal properly. My major weaknesses in researching interculturality in Bolivian public health were based on the actual research itself and were twofold: (1) there was an apparent lack of prior research, and (2) the question of the validity of the research.
Case Study: FRONTIERS
Case Study: PASS
