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The social diagnostics of stroke-like symptoms: healers, doctors and prophets in Agincourt Limpopo Province, South Africa

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Lewando Hundt, Gillian, Stuttaford, Maria and Ngoma, Bulelwa. (2004) The social diagnostics of stroke-like symptoms: healers, doctors and prophets in Agincourt Limpopo Province, South Africa. Journal of Biosocial Science, Vol.36 (No.4). pp. 433-443. ISSN 0021-9320

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Abstract

This paper focuses on the clinical and social diagnostics of stroke-like symptoms in Limpopo Province, South Africa. The research questions addressed here are: what are the lay understandings of strokelike symptoms and what are the health-seeking behaviours of Tsongan Mozambican refugees and South Africans in this area? The study site is ten villages in the Agincourt sub-district of Limpopo Province which are within the health surveillance area of the Agincourt Health and Population Unit (AHPU) of the University of Witwatersrand. The population are Tsongan who speak Shangaan and comprise self-settled Mozambican refugees who fled to this area during the 1980s across the nearby border and displaced South African citizens. The latter were forcibly displaced from their villages to make way for game reserves or agricultural development and moved to this area when it was the former ‘homeland’ of Gazankulu. The team collected data using rapid ethnographic assessment and household interviews as part of the Southern Africa Stroke Prevention Initiative (SASPI). The main findings are that stroke-like symptoms are considered to be both a physical and social condition, and in consequence plural healing using clinical and social diagnostics is sought to address both these dimensions. People with stroke-like symptoms maintain their physical, mental and social well-being and deal with this affliction and misfortune by visiting doctors, healers, prophets and churches.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare
Divisions: Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Health and Social Studies
Faculty of Medicine > Warwick Medical School
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Refugees -- Health and hygiene -- South Africa, Health services accessibility -- South Africa, Brain -- Diseases, Public health -- Anthropological aspects, Healers -- South Africa, Ethnology -- South Africa, Cerebrovascular disease -- South Africa, Limpopo (South Africa) -- Social conditions
Journal or Publication Title: Journal of Biosocial Science
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISSN: 0021-9320
Official Date: July 2004
Volume: Vol.36
Number: No.4
Page Range: pp. 433-443
Identification Number: 10.1017/S0021932004006662
Status: Peer Reviewed
Access rights to Published version: Open Access
Funder: Wellcome Trust (London, England)
Grant number: 06476/Z/01/Z (WT)
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URI: http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/749

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