Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Naming and grouping illnesses in Feira (Brazil)

  • Published:
Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper examines the naming and grouping of illnesses in the popular medicine of Feira de Santana, a city in Northeastern Brazil, in a context of medical pluralism. It discusses the principles used to name illnesses in Feira and the semantic shifts evident in popular nomenclature; examines the grouping of illnesses in Feira; and shows the flexibility of these situationally negotiated categorizations. It also analyzes the place of symptoms in local nosological knowledge and examines three folk illnesses as an illustration of the discussion of illness classification.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ackerknecht, E. 1971 Medicine and Ethnology: Selected Essays. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bibeau, G. 1979 De la maladie à la guérison. Doctoral Dissertation: Laval University.

  • — 1982 A Systems Approach to Ngbandi Medicine.In African Health and Healing Systems. P. S. Yoder, ed. Los Angeles: Crossroads.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blumhagen, D. 1980 Hypertension: A Folk Illness With a Medical Name. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 4: 197–227.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bollo, L. 1961 Introduction to Medicine and Medical Terminology. Philadelphia: Sanders.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boltanski, L. 1977 As Classes Sociais e o Corpo. Rio de Janeiro: Graal.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boster, J. S., and S. C. Weller 1990 Cognitive and Contextual Variation in Hot-Cold Classification. American Anthropologist 92: 171–179.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cadernos da UNB 1981 Situacao e Perspectivas do Controle das Doencas Infecciosas e Parasitarias. Brasilia: Universidade de Brasilia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crandon-Malamud, L. 1991 From the Fat of Our Souls: Social Change, Political Process and Medical Pluralism in Bolivia. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • D'Andrade, R. G., N. Quinn, S. B. Nerlove, and A. K. Romney 1972 Categories of Disease in American-English and Mexican-Spanish.In Multidimensional Scaling: Theory and Application in the Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 2. A. K. Romney, R. N. Shepard and S. B. Nerlove, eds. pp. 9–54. New York: Seminar Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, D., and S. Low, eds. 1989 Gender, Health, and Illness: The Case of Nerves. New York: Hemisphere Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Certeau, M. 1980 L'Invention du Quotidien. Arts de Faire. Paris: UGE.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dozon, J. P. 1987 Ce que valoriser la médecine traditionnelle veut dire. Politique Africaine 28.

  • Duarte, L. F. 1986 Da Vida Nervosa Nas Classes Trabalhadoras Urbanas. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar/CNPQ.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dundes, A., ed. 1981 The Evil Eye. A Folklore Casebook. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eisenberg, L. 1977 Disease and Illness: Distinctions Between Professional and Popular Ideas of Sickness. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 1: 9–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellen, R. F., and D. Reason 1979 Classifications in Their Social Context. London: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans-Pritchard, E. 1937 Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fabrega, H. 1973 Illness and Shamanistic Curing in Zinacantan. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fassin, D. 1992 Pouvoir et Maladie en Afrique. Paris: PUF.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. 1970 The Order of Things. New York: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frake, C. 1961 The Diagnosis of Disease among the Subanum of Mindanao. American Anthropologist 63: 113–132.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gelfand, S. 1964 Medicine and Custom in Africa. Edinburgh: Livingstone.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gillies, E. 1976 Causal Criteria in African Classification of Disease.In Social Anthropology and Medicine. J. Loudon, ed. London: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, B. 1977 The Heart of What's the Matter: The Semantics of Illness in Iran. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 1(1): 25–58.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gordon, D. 1990 Embodying Illness, Embodying Cancer. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 14(2): 275–294

    Google Scholar 

  • Guarnaccia, P. J., V. deLaCancela, and E. Carrillo 1989 The Multiple Meanings of Ataques de Nervios in the Latino Community. Medical Anthropology 11: 47–62.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guimaraes, R. ed. 1979 Saude e Medicina no Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: Graal.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herzlich, C. 1969 Santé et Maladie. Paris: Mouton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holland, D., and N. Quinn, eds. 1987 Cultural Models in Language and Theory. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • IBASE 1982 Saude e Trabalho no Brasil. Petropolis: Vozes.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaspan, M. 1976 The Social Organization of Indigenous and Modern Medical Practices in Southwest Sumatra.In Asian Medical Systems. C. Leslie, ed. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jenkins, J. H. 1988 Ethnopsychiatric Interpretations of Schizophrenic Illness: The Problem of Nervios within Mexican-American Families. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 12(3): 301–330.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kay, M. 1993 Fallen Fontanelle: Culture-bound or Cross-cultural? Medical Anthropology 15: 137–156.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1979 Lexemic Changes and Semantic Shifts in Disease Names. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 3: 73–94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kay, P. 1987 Linguistic Competence and Folk Theories of Language.In Holland, D. and N. Quinn, op. cit..

    Google Scholar 

  • Kleinman, A. 1980 Patients and Healers in the Context of Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laplantine, F. 1990 Médecines traditionnelles et médecine officielle dans le Brésil contemporain. Santé, Culture, Health VII(1): 5–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1986 Anthropologie de la Maladie. Paris: Payot.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, G. 1976 Knowledge of Illness in a Sepic Society. London: Athlone.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lock, M. 1990 On Being Ethnic: The Politics of Identity Breaking and Making in Canada or Nevra on Sunday. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry 14: 237–254.

    Google Scholar 

  • Low, S. 1985 Culturally Interpreted Symptoms or Culture-bound Syndromes: A Cross-cultural Review of Nerves. Social Science and Medicine 21(2): 187–196.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loyola, M. A. 1984 Medicos e Curandeiros. Conflito Social e Saude. Sao Paulo: Difel.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maloney, C. ed. 1976 The Evil Eye. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Migliore, S. 1994 Gender, Emotion, and Physical Distress: The Sicilian-Canadian “Nerves” Complex. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry 18(3): 271–297.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nations, M. 1982 Illness of the Child: The Cultural Context of Childhood Diarrhea in Northeast Brazil. Ph.D. Dissertation in Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nations, M., and L. A. Rebhun 1988 Angels With Wet Wings Won't Fly: Maternal Sentiment in Brazil and the Image of Neglect. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry 12(2): 141–200.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ngokwey, N. 1984a Medical Pluralism in a Brazilian City. Ph.D. Dissertation in Anthropology, Los Angeles: UCLA.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1984b The Cultural Construction of Illness. Africa, Sao Paulo 7: 115–132.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1988 Pluralistic Etiological Systems in their Social Context. Social Science and Medicine 26(8): 793–802.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1989 On the Specificity of Healing Functions. Social Science and Medicine 27(4): 515–526.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1991 Initiation as Healing. A Study of the Brazilian Candomble.In Yearbook of Cross-cultural Medicine and Psychotherapy. W. Andritzky, ed. Berlin: VWB.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1994 The President's Illness: Culture, Politics, and Fetishism in Benin. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry 18(1): 61–81.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nichter, M. 1989 Anthropology and International Health. Dordrecht: Kluwer.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1994 Illness Semantics and International Health: The Weak Lungs/TB Complex in the Philippines. Social Science and Medicine 38(5): 649–663.

    Google Scholar 

  • Price, L. 1987 Ecuadorian Illness Stories: Cultural Knowledge in Natural Discourse.In Holland, D. and N. Quinn, eds, op. cit..

    Google Scholar 

  • Queiroz, M. 1991 Representacoes Sobre Saude e Doenca. Campinas: UNICAMP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rebhun, L. A. 1993 Nerves and Emotional Play in Northeast Brazil. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 7(2): 131–151.

    Google Scholar 

  • Santos Filho, L. 1977 Historia Geral da Medicina Brasileira. Sao Paulo: Hucitec and USP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sao Paulo, F. 1970 Linguagem Medica Popular no Brasil. Salvador: Itapua.

  • Scheper-Hughes, N. 1988 The Madness of Hunger: Sickness, Delirium, and Human Needs. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 12: 429–458.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1992 Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sindzingre, N., and A. Zempleni 1981 Modèles et Pragmatiques, activation et répétition: réflexions sur la causalité de la maladie chez les Senoufo de Côte d'Ivoire. Social Science and Medicine 15B(3): 279–293.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sontag, S. 1979 Illness as Metaphor. New York: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weller, S. C. 1984 Cross-Cultural Concepts of Illness: Variation and Validation. American Anthropologist 86: 341–351.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yoder, S., ed. 1982 African Health and Healing Systems. Los Angeles: Crossroads.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yoder, P. S., and R. C. Hornik 1994 Perceptions of Severity of Diarrhoea and Treatment Choice: A Comparative Study of Healthcom Sites. Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 97: 1–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Young, A. 1982 The Anthropologies of Illness and Sickness. Annual Review of Anthropology 11: 257–285

    Google Scholar 

  • Young, J. C. 1978 Illness Categories and Action Strategies in a Tarascan Town. American Ethnologist 5: 81–97.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département de Sociologie et Anthropologie, Université de Lubumbashi, Lubumbashi, Zaire

    Ndolamb Ngokwey

Authors
  1. Ndolamb Ngokwey
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ngokwey, N. Naming and grouping illnesses in Feira (Brazil). Cult Med Psych 19, 385–408 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01381918

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01381918

Keywords

Search

Navigation