title: Pathways to healing: curative travel among Muslims and non-Muslims in eastern East Africa.
abstract: Two areas of therapeutic provision in eastern East Africa are contrasted: a coastal stretch inhabited mainly by Muslims, and a largely non-Muslim hinterland, each with its own healers, medicines, and customary ethic. Spread over both areas are providers of biomedicine associated originally, and to some extent today, with Christianity. Whether or not they also attend biomedical sites, Muslims seek healers in the coastal stretch and non-Muslims usually in the hinterland, each following ethico-religious preferences. However, because people move through the two areas and compare treatments, individuals' journeys can change direction, with non-Muslims sometimes seeking Muslim healers and either of these groups choosing the more dispersed biomedical outlets. The notion of 'pathways' to health thus combines set journeys to areas known for particular healers and a distinctive ethic, with possible detours to alternative sources of therapy, including biomedicine not regarded as governed by the same ethic.
authors.affiliation: a All Souls College , Oxford , United Kingdom.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Parkin
mesh_terms: D000351:Africa, Eastern; D060432:Anthropology, Medical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007514:Islam; D008297:Male; D016488:Medicine, African Traditional; D057236:Travel Medicine