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Article: Native American medicine, cancer and spirituality. (Medical Anthropology).
- Article from:
- Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients
- Article date:
- June 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Townsend Letter Group. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Some years ago I was shocked to read that the Navajo are often dissatisfied with hospital based treatment for cancer because it "does not reveal a cause" and instead attribute many illnesses to acts such as "killing a sacred animal" or "exposure to lightning" (Csordas and Kleinman 1990). Indeed, the more I looked into it, the more it seemed that the medical traditions of the native people of North America offered much by way of useful therapies for the modern disease of cancer, from herbs to spiritual techniques. Indeed anthropologists in recent years have found that Navajos with colon cancer show improved outcomes when they supplement conventional treatment with peyote ...