Abstract

MARTINEZ, Bárbara. Factors associated with the health system and disease in San Antonio (Catamarca, Argentina): an anthropological approach. Salud, Barranquilla [online]. 2016, vol.32, n.3, pp.411-418. ISSN 0120-5552.

Abstract Objective: Identify the processes of health and disease among the people of San Antonio del El Cajón (Catamarca, Argentina), and the linkage of these dynamics to biomedicine. Additionally, study the articulations between the two systems. Materials and methods: Qualitative research, with an ethnographic approach in which participant observation, co-residence and multiple session open interviews play a primary role is privileged. The research has focused on local people who regularly attend the health center, nurses, health workers and members of the itinerant health team. The total population of the place is about 235 inhabitants. Results: It was found that the processes of health, disease and cure are not limited to the human body, but also the landscape and the creatures that inhabit it are involved. It has been identified that the figure of the ritual specialist is central in the resolution of many diseases. It has been determined that people value and use biomedicine, although attendance to the hospital institution is often shunned. Conclusion: A combined use of both systems has been identified. People’s valuations about the disease in question are influential, but other factors such as distance to the medical center and interpersonal relationships with health professionals are too. The relevance of a qualitative approach is emphasized in accounting for the specificities of local categories, which are elusive to an approach built from concepts derived from the Cartesian dualism.

Keywords : qualitative research; traditional medicine; anthropology cultural; physician patient relations; treatment refusal.

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