Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Misinterpretations​ ​Of​ ​Hmong​ ​Culture: Complementary​ ​Medical​ ​Frameworks, Telisha Tausinga, Madison Harmer

Student Works

Current social science literature outside of anthropology has attributed Hmong difficulties adapting to Western health care to their traditional healing practices, claiming that successful integration only occurs as the younger generation discards traditional beliefs (Franzen-Castle & Smith 2013). Ethnographic research conducted in France and Thailand refutes these claims; Hmong of younger and older generations utilize both the state medical system and traditional healing, integrating these systems instead of treating them as ontologically distinct (and thus in competition with each other). Many researchers and medical personnel studying or working with Hmong populations have ignored models of ontological holism because of the …