Producing what in the transition? Health messaging and cultural constructions of health in Tonga.
This paper asks: what have the health promotion campaigns in Tonga actually produced, and what does this imply for our understanding of the "health transition?" Examination of villagers' responses to health messaging reveals an efflorescence of ideas about health, including a re-conceptualizing of the formal Westernized terminology of health promotion messages into concepts more aligned with traditional Tongan ways of being well. This implies the need for a model of the health transition process in which mutual shifts in understanding must be recognized by all parties, traditional villager and medicalized health professional alike, before new ideas of 'health' are actualized.
Young Leslie
Heather
H
Department of Anthropology, University of Hawai'i at Mănoa, Hawaii, USA. hyleslie@hawaii.edu
D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D002669:Child Welfare / Q000208:ethnology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D017280:Condoms / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003469:Culture; D004032:Diet; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior / Q000208:ethnology*; D006293:Health Promotion; D019456:Health Transition; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008429:Maternal Welfare / Q000208:ethnology; D014058:Tonga