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From “Shrinks” to “Urban Shamans”: Argentine Immigrants’ Therapeutic Eclecticism in New York City

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Abstract

This article examines Argentine immigrants’ reliance on informal networks of care that enable their access to a variety of health providers in New York City (NYC). These providers range from health brokers (doctors known on a personal basis) to urban shamans, including folk healers and fortunetellers of various disciplines. A conceptual framework, based on analysis of social capital categories, is proposed for the examination of immigrants’ access to valuable health resources, which are based on relationships of reciprocity and trust among parties. Results revealed immigrants’ diverse patterns of health-seeking practices, most importantly their reliance on health brokers, epitomized by Argentine and Latino doctors who provide informal health assistance on the basis of sharing immigrants’ social fields and ethnic interests. While mental health providers constitute a health resource shared by Argentines’ social webs, urban shamans represent a trigger for the activation of women’s emotional support webs. Contrary to the familiar assumption that dense and homogenous networks are more beneficial to their members, this article underscores the advantages of heterogeneous and fluid social webs that connect immigrants to a variety of resources, including referrals to diverse health practitioners.

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Notes

  1. The following maps were defined in this project: (a) the geographic map, which refers to the identification of Argentines in NYC, as well as their geographical enclaves; (b) the institutional map that is represented by ethnic organizations run by Argentine immigrants; and (c) the social map, which includes the main social activities (e.g., festivals, community gathering) involving the Argentine minority in NYC.

  2. Care and cure reflect two aspects of patients’ needs. While “cure” systems measure instrumental (task-focused) behaviors, “care” systems refer to affective (socioemotional) behaviors (DelVeccio Good and Good 2000). Good and DelVeccio Good (1993) observe that caring and competence (cure) become a dual message addressed to medical students in the United States.

  3. For example, Jenkins (1988) observed that Mexican-American families tend to counteract the stigma associated with a mental illness by reinforcing the strength of solidarity and family bonds.

  4. As reported by Singer and Garcia (1995: 159): From the black spiritual churches of the American South (Baer 1984) to Candomble, Batuque, Umbanda, and Macumba of Brazil (Leacock and Leacock 1975) and from Mexican Spiritualismo (Finkler 1985; Kearney 1978) to Vodun in Haiti (Metraux 1959) and Santeria in Cuba (Sandoval 1979), the circum-Caribbean region supports a rich diversity of spiritist cults. These religio-therapeutic movements, primarily and traditionally centered among dominated populations, urban and rural poor, and the descendants of slaves, share a common belief in communication with and possession by an array of incorporeal spirits.

  5. The fact that the ethnographer was a woman could also have been at stake here, an issue discussed in other writings (Viladrich 2005b).

  6. Kleinman (1980) also notes that fortune-telling and other clairvoyant practices provide similar ends as do psychotherapy and supportive care, as they contribute to diminishing anxiety by providing advice and practical solutions.

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Acknowledgements

I want to express my gratitude to Peter Guarnaccia and to two anonymous reviewers, whose comments greatly improved this article. I thank the members of my PhD dissertation committee—Ana Abraído-Lanza, Robert Fullilove, Peter Messeri, Sherry Ortner, and Richard Parker—for their thoughtful advice and support during the many stages of this research project. I am also grateful to the Urban Public Health Program, School of Health Sciences, and Schools of the Health Professions at Hunter College, CUNY, for the release time awarded during the spring semester of 2006, which allowed me to spend considerable time working on revisions of this article. As usual, Stephen Pekar provided invaluable assistance in the editing of this paper. This project received partial funding from the Columbia Center for the Active Life of Minority Elders (CALME) at Columbia University, supported by the National Institute of Aging, National Institutes of Health.

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  1. Urban Public Health Program, The School of Health Sciences, Hunter College of the City University of New York, 425 E 25th Street W 1021, New York, NY, 10010-2590, USA

    Anahí Viladrich

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Viladrich, A. From “Shrinks” to “Urban Shamans”: Argentine Immigrants’ Therapeutic Eclecticism in New York City. Cult Med Psychiatry 31, 307–328 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11013-007-9058-y

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