Reconstruction and resistance: cultural responses to living the health transition in French Polynesia.
This paper highlights Tahitian healing in response to rapid cultural change in French Polynesia. First, I examine the reconstruction and adaptation of Tahitian healing to cultural, economic, political, and health transitions in the past 40 years. Second, I address the issue of resistance by non-urban healers to the transformations of Tahitian healing in the urban context. Specifically, I argue that the reluctance of village healers to collaboration, association, and government legitimation (urban transitions) suggests that the status of Tahitian healing is a contested issue. The experiences of contemporary Tahitian healers challenge the unilinear health transition framework, which suggests that indigenous medicine will submit to globalization pressures and absorb a biomedical epistemology.
Henry
Lisa
L
University of North Texas, Department of Anthropology, PO Box 310409, Denton, TX 76203, USA.
D003469:Culture; D003906:Developing Countries; D006291:Health Policy; D006303:Health Services, Indigenous; D019456:Health Transition; D006801:Humans; D008519:Medicine, Traditional; D011114:Polynesia; D011320:Primary Health Care; D019035:Rural Health Services; D012922:Social Change; D019037:Urban Health Services