The baladi curative system of Cairo, Egypt.
The article explores the symbolic structure of the baladi (traditional) cultural system as revealed in everyday narratives, with a focus on baladi curative action. The everyday illness narrative provides a cultural window to the principles of fluidity and restorative balance of baladi curative practices. The body is seen as a dynamic organism through which both foreign objects and physiological entities can move. The body should be in balance, as with any humorally-influenced system, and so baladi cures aim to restore normal balance and functioning of the body. The article examines in detail a narrative on treatment of a sick child, and another on treatment of fertility problems. It traces such cultural oppositions as insider: outsider; authentic:inauthentic; home remedy:cosmopolitan medicine. In the social as well as the medical arena these themes organize social/medical judgements about correct action and explanations of events.
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Department of Anthropology/Honors Program, University of Houston-University Park.
D002662:Child Health Services; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D003469:Culture; D004899:Erythroblastosis, Fetal / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007247:Infertility, Female / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D008427:Maternal Health Services; D008519:Medicine, Traditional; D008602:Mental Healing; D011014:Pneumonia / Q000628:therapy; D011247:Pregnancy